Chronic Wasting Disease

[Xnt]

Has it spread to humans from wildlife? I listened to The Meat Eater podcast and they said no. Just wanted to see if anything was missed.

 

I have a pocket full of tags for an area where CWD has been detected. You can get the animals tested by the state for free, but you can only discard the doe that tested positive, if you want to. that might be difficult for as many deer as I'll be killing. Seems like a lot of worry if there's practically zero risk.

[MULEPACKHUNTER]

No confirmed cases

[Benbrown]

Several years ago, research in mice with genetically altered blood/brain barriers that mimic those in humans suggested that the prions were not able to penetrate the human blood/brain barrier. However, a recent attempt to infect various primates did result in three out of five macaques contracting CWD after being fed venison from a CWD-infected white-tailed deer. However, the CWD prions were detected in the livers and the report did not comment on whether there was any effect observed on the brains of these animals. Macaques in which the prions were injected into their brains did contract CWD. Macaques who were subjected to CWD contaminated flesh rubbed on their bare skin, similar to what a hunter might experience when cleaning an infected animal, did not become infected.

 

http://www.jsonline.com/story/sports/columnists/paul-smith/2017/06/28/macaque-study-heightens-concerns-human-susceptibility-cwd/430046001/

 

CWD has been pretty common in deer and elk populations for about 40 years now and, so far, there have been no confirmed cases in humans. However, each year the disease spreads into new populations of deer and elk and some currently infected populations are approaching saturation, so it's worth keeping an eye on it.

 

FWIW, the unit in which I hunt elk up in Colorado will require mandatory testing this year. in the past, I have been content to roll the dice, but this year that is not an option.

[MT_Sourdough]

It's explosion was initiated by industrial styled agricultural practices that include taking bi-product coming back from the slaughter houses and feeding it to livestock. I think that process has been banned, but the damage is done. Once a parasitic disease has mutated to transfer from one species to another, than it poses a threat to continue to infect other species. The disease was introduced to wildlife (deer, elk, etc.) from livestock, so that cross species infection demonstrates the risk.

One of my biggest fears about CWD is iit has become a political football used by differing interest groups in the west.