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In the past few years, what was once a straightforward if labor-intensive process—field dressing, transporting, and processing the meat into various cuts before freezing—has become considerably more fraught. Throughout 30 states, chronic wasting disease (CWD) is on the rise in deer-related species; trophy hunting, or captive hunt, facilities are at least partly to blame.
Prions are abnormal and infectious forms of proteins that collect in brain tissue, causing cells to die. The sponge-like holes left in the brain are a hallmark of transmissible spongiform encephalopathies such as bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE, also known as mad cow disease in cows and Chronic Wasting Disease in deer and elk) and Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (CJD), the human version of BSE.
At least 26 U.S. states, three Canadian provinces and countries including South Korea, Finland, Sweden and Norway have been affected by chronic wasting disease (CWD), a contagious neurological disease that affects deer, elk, reindeer and moose.
Heather Swanson and Ryan Prioreschi stand in knee-high golden grass on a slope outside Boulder, Colorado, where the Rocky Mountains start slumping into the plains, at the epicenter of a now-international animal epidemic. The two ecologists, who monitor wildlife for the city, have their binoculars out, and they’re staring right at the problem.
The Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy at the University of Minnesota announced Tuesday that it has launched the Chronic Wasting Disease Response, Research and Policy Program. Dr. Michael T. Osterholm, the director of CIDRAP, said the new program has multiple objectives, but the biggest one is to raise national awareness of what he believes is a real threat to human health.
If you live in an urban area, should you be concerned about the spread of chronic wasting disease (CWD) in U.S. deer herds?
CWD has caused hundreds of captive deer to be euthanized on commercial deer farms in Michigan, Wisconsin, Illinois, Iowa and Pennsylvania. The disease has also spread to non-captive (wild) deer herds.
CWD hasn’t been widely publicized. So it’s no surprise that many people, whether they live in rural or urban areas, are unaware of the issue. But among those urban dwellers who are aware, there’s often little concern—because most people think CWD affects only rural areas, namely hunters and Departments of Natural Resources (DNRs) that depend on hunting licenses for revenue.
Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (CJD) is a fatal brain disorder that destroys brain cells, causing tiny holes in the brain. Symptoms of CJD are ataxia, or difficulty controlling body movements, abnormal gait and speech, and dementia. The disease is always fatal and has no cure. CJD is one of several transmissible spongiform encephalopathies (TSEs).
State and federal officials have paid Wisconsin deer farmers more than $330,000 in compensation so far this year after killing their herds out of concerns they were infected with chronic wasting disease. The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reports CWD was found on three farms this year, resulting in depopulation.
Known as chronic wasting disease, or CWD, it has baffled scientists for decades. Where did it come from, and why is it spreading across the landscape? What health risks might it pose to humans who eat parts of infected animals? And can cattle get it from infected deer, elk, and moose, thus introducing it into the human food chain?
Human beings are generally okay with buck heads. We hang them on our walls, set bouquets on them and stick them in bowties. But when it comes to testing these cervids for signs of fatal disease, some people would rather avoid decapitation entirely.
