Re: OT: Chronic Wasting Disease in WI deer
- Subject: Re: OT: Chronic Wasting Disease in WI deer
- From: D* L*
- Date: Thu, 1 Aug 2002 09:10:19 -0400 (EDT)
Well, I raise sheep which can contract a disease called scrapie which is
similar to mad cow desease. One difference is that it seems that people
cannot contract CJD; scrapie has been around for centuries and it
appears that people while eating lamb have not contracted the associated
human chronic wasting desease. When scrapie is diagnosed in sheep, the
entire originating flock is sacrificed along with any flocks which have
purchased animals from the originating flock. The USDA has instituted a
non voluntary scrapie program designed to more easily track sheep that
are sold so when and if scrapie shows up, they can find the flocks the
animal can from and travelled through. Scrapie, like mad cow in cattle
and chronic wasting desease in deer and elk, takes years to develop to the
symtomatic levels so that many animals could have been exposed prior to
the animal actually showing symptoms. They are just beginning to develop
diagnostic tests for infected animals that are not yet showing symptoms.
And they really don't know how to interpret the results of a positive test
in non symptomatic animals. Because it takes so long to develop, it has
been very difficult to study and obtain research funding. It is quite a
complicated issue!
Denise Leonard
Tanstaafl Farm
Greenfield, MA
dal@shaysnet.com
On Thu, 1 Aug 2002, Pat Mitchell wrote:
> Don Martinson wrote:
> > Believe me, Claire, it caught officials here in Wisconsin quite by
> > surprise. They think the disease might have been brought in by elk
> > that were imported from the west to be raised on some of the local
> > "game farms".
>
>
> The thing that worries me most about this disease is that
> thus far the DNR doesn't know how it is spread from deer to
> deer (or if they do know, it's never been reported). They
> chose a radical course of irradication in a small area as
> their means of controlling it . . . that seems, to me, rash
> and unwise. It shall be interesting to see what develops in
> the next few years.
>
> --
> Pat Mitchell
> corgilover@wi.rr.com
>
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