From CNN:

Fatal wasting disease discovered in Illinois deer
Saturday, November 2, 2002 Posted: 5:53 PM EST (2253 GMT)


Chronic wasting disease, which was recently discovered in an Illinois deer, is in the same family of illnesses as mad cow disease



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SPRINGFIELD, Illinois (Reuters) -- A young wild female deer shot by a landowner is Illinois' first case of chronic wasting disease, a fatal wildlife illness linked to mad cow disease, state officials said.

The man shot the doe in Winnebago County, in north-central Illinois, in late October because it appeared ill, the Illinois Department of Natural Resources said. Tests Friday confirmed the diagnosis.

Illinois has been testing deer and elk for the disease for the past five years, state officials said. Extensive tests are planned during Illinois' deer hunting season, which begins November 22. Samples will also be taken from deer control programs in northeastern Illinois, where hunting is not allowed.

Winnebago County shares a border with the state of Wisconsin, where about 40 wild deer have been found with the affliction since it first emerged in the state in February.

The Wisconsin cases were the first to appear east of the Mississippi River. The disease has been present in U.S. deer and elk for decades but until last year was confined mostly to the Rocky Mountain and Plains states.

CWD is in the same family of illnesses as bovine spongiform encephalopathy, commonly known as mad cow disease, which can damage brain and nerve tissue.

The disease has never been found to infect humans or cattle, but the World Health Organization has advised against eating venison or any part of an animal showing symptoms.

CWD has been found in wild deer in Wyoming, Colorado, South Dakota, Nebraska, New Mexico and the Canadian province of Saskatchewan and it has also been found in farmed elk in Minnesota, Colorado, South Dakota, Oklahoma, Kansas, Nebraska, Montana, Saskatchewan and Alberta, Canada.

Wisconsin launched a series of hunts this summer in an effort to eradicate the deer population in a 400-square-mile zone in the southern part of the state, where all of its CWD-positive deer have been found.

How many people in Wisconsin and Illinois will be eating venison this year? I don't believe they really know how this disease is spread from deer to humans.

I first heard the news report about this on the radio last Friday. This is not good! I knew it was only a matter of time before the disease would migrate down here. I hunt further south in Clark county. Hopefully this disease won't find it's way down there before something can be done short of destroying thousands of animals. This is definately not good!

Unfortunately, I think this is just the tip of the iceberg. Deer and Elk hunting as we know it today might be totally gone in 25 years. Enjoy it while you can.

Bill, it will surely have an impact, but I disagree that the sky is falling. It appears that especially elk have some resistance to CWD. How it will effect things in the end, it is too early to say. We do not know enough about resistance to properly model the epidemic.

For info: http://cwd-info.org/

FWIW, Dutch.

Dutch,

I did use terms such as "I think" (my opinion), and "might" (not conclusive), so I'll stand by my post, and do not disagree with yours. My main point was that we should enjoy it while we can, because none of us knows the future.

Bill

Anybody out there in Wisconsin or Illinois plan on eating their Venision this year? I think I would pass if I was hunting there just to be safe.

Maybe they found it because they were looking for it. Maybe it didn't reach Illinois but is now evident for the same environmental reasons TSEs are found in many places.

http://www.markpurdey.com/articles_thewastingland.htm

http://www.markpurdey.com/

http://www.purdeyenvironment.com/IntroHyp.htm

http://www.purdeyenvironment.com/Web%20references.htm

http://abcnews.go.com/sections/living/SecondOpinion/secondopinion010525.html

The hit the herd is taking in Wisconsin is not from CWD but an overreacting game agency.

http://www.caids-wi.org/

I for one will be eating Wisconsin venison this year as I have done for the past 30 years. The fearmongers appear to be winning this one so far. When there is an unknown, fear is looking over its shoulder.

Just look at the language in some of these posts:

"I don't believe they really know how this disease is spread from deer to humans".
There is no evidence that CWD causes vCJD in humans. The evidence that humans contracted vCJD from BSE infected cattle is inconclusive, although it is being purported as fact.

"Deer and Elk hunting as we know it today might be totally gone in 25 years".
Wow, CWD has been known to exist in Colorado for 30 years and it is unknown how long it was around before that. There still are managed herds of elk and deer in those areas and there continues to be hunting there.

All I can say as people should educate themselves and not believe everything one reads.

[ 11-05-2002, 01:32: Message edited by: jackfish ]

"I don't believe they really know how this disease is spread from deer to humans".

There is no evidence that CWD causes vCJD in humans. The evidence that humans contracted vCJD from BSE infected cattle is inconclusive, although it is being purported as fact.

jackfish, "no evidence" does not mean that we certainly know that is doesn't spread from animals to humans. The first case U.S. case(Mad Cow in humans) was reported recently in Florida. He/She(I can't remember), lived in Briton as a child and must have carried the disease for years before the symtoms became apparent. They just don't know how the disease is transmitted. Isn't it logical that eating the flesh of infected might transmit the disease? Come on. Why is it recommended that we don't eat the infected animals? Because we don't know do we?

Come on guys, lets put some things in PERSPECTIVE.

With BSE, we had several HUNDRED MILLION people happily munching away on BSE infected beef. INCLUDING head cheese, and sausage made from whatever wouldn't go in the headcheese: including lymph tissue and CNS tissue.

What do we have, ten years later? About 120 victims. Moreover, the pace of the epidemic does NOT seem to be increasing! Now, those unfortunate folks certainly have a case to complain about. But 120 out of 200 million? Which included eating the most highly contaminated cuts?

Those are odds I can live with! JMO, Dutch.

I hunt elk and mule deer in the affected area of colorado and I will be eating the meat. The people who got mad cow disease probaly contracted it from eating ground beef, if they even got it from that the cow, creudfeultz-jacobs disease or however you say it, is lower per capita in colorado and wyoming than other parts of the country. cwd isn't found in the meat of affected animals, so if you bone out your meat and fully cook it, your chances are slim. besides, colorado and wyoming have done a ton of test on cwd trying to give it to pronghorn, sheep, and moose, but they can't because it can't make the species jump. 80,000,000 million plus ate meat in europe and how many got it like 200 people. those are good enough odds for me.

Harkm

I am from Wisconsin and have sat in on some of the DNR reports to the public. I am still going hunting and I am going to eat the meat. I will follow the guidelines. You have to remember that it was found only in the one are so far. We harvest 350,000 deer I believe annually. Most people out of the "hot zone" have concerns here to keep it out of our area.

When this first hit the state I spoke to the local DNR and they found out the the source was from a deer farm or a carcass from out West from a muley from Colorado. That what I was told unoffically. This was right after it went "public". It was also published in Deer and Deer Hunting magazine that some deer wer found in the "hot spot" area that had ear tags that were not from our DNR. It is thought someone brought in "breeding" stock privately to improve their local herd. The DNR is currently testing 500 deer from each hunting zone. I have a relative that works for the DNR and he has to do that. He is still going to eat the meat. If I hunted near the hit zone I might have bigger concerns. CWD had been around since the 60s. No cases of CWD have crossed over (not say that it can't happen). I am not sure which agency it was but they were trying to infect other species with no such luck. Sheep get scapies (sp?), another prioin diesase, and it has been around it was like 200 years and that hasn't jumped out of its species. People haven't worried about that.

Part of the CWD scare is that is was found on this side of the Mississippi. The Wisconsin DNR is worried that the number of liecense is down. Without harvesting the herd and keeping the number in check the population of deer can get other illness also. (We won't even go in to the economy side of it) In some parts of the country TB is in high numbers. The media has alot to do with this. I didn't even know that as many states out West had CWD until this happen in Wisconsin.

Bottom line some people are concerned but as was stated in an earlier post the odds of getting a CWD deer is low. We will all know more after this season how wide spread it is.

I will be out with my 480 to harvest. Our season starts the 23rd so we will know more then.

Hcliff

There is a lot of unknown about this and I think a lot of over reaction. Having read quite a bit about it I have come to the conclusion that we just don't know. One thing we do know is that cooking the heck out of it does nothing to prions (it is not like triginosis). Even in the areas of Colorado that have been known to be infected for 30 years the infection rate is no higher than like 12 percent.

I have a theory that this has been in these cervids all along and we are only now discovering it and over reacting. I will not be surprised if they find it in a small percentage of all the animals tested. Eating anything could kill you, but I have no real concerns about eating deer or elk.

They took a sample of brain tissue from Cody's elk at a game check station on our way home the other night. I assume if it turned up positive they'd let us know, so that's some reassurance.
I spent over fifteen years in the game processing business as a sideline gig to farming, though, and was up to my elbows in gore the majority of that. So if anybody's a candidate for Chronic Wasting Disease, it's me, which could actually explain a lot of stuff.

This article makes it seem like they are quarantining huge areas in Wisconsin. I guess they are overblowing things.

http://www.remington.com/magazine/preview/2002_0801.asp

I know that it is getting alot of press in the Midwest. I don't know how much the media talks about CWD in states that have had it awhile. I think it suprised everyone that it popped up. They have found CWD on some private deer farms (Two I think with one in that hot area). It is alarming because of the media. I think they are taking the subject and going crazy. Similar to gun control. One bad, there all bad.

I do know that there has been lots of talk of how it is like mad cow. I think that is why I think the media has picked up on it. It is alarming. It is also hurting revenue for the state. Another factor is that if we don't hunt the population will skyrocket.

I know some of the concern is that "sharpshooters" (DNR agents and employees) were brought in to eradicate and elimate an area. That drew lots of media attention.

What does anyone else in the 6 other states that have CWD think? Or how much news time is it getting there? I know that the are also really concerned that Michigan has TB in there deer.

I think it has everyone concerned (including me)because there are so many unanswered questions.

Hcliff

Wisconsin DNR web site for CWD. It has other links ther too.
http://www.dnr.state.wi.us/org/land/wildlife/whealth/issues/CWD/

harkm, I defy anyone to show me conclusive evidence that people actually got vCJD from BSE affected cattle. They can't, all the circumstantial evidence is being purported as fact. The reason we are being told not to eat affected animals is that politically they have to err extremely on the side of caution and they are tied to the classic theories of TSEs. There is as much evidence to suggest alternative theories of TSEs as what is being fed us as fact. Prions have never been found in skeletal flesh. Avoid the brain, spine and lymph nodes and any meat that may be affected by damage to those organs. You are more likely to be killed falling from your tree stand, driving to your hunting area, a heart attack while hunting, or getting shot by yourself or another hunter than dying from eating the deer you shoot this year.

Bone 'em out and eat 'em, I will be hunting exclusively in the CWD management area of WI and can't see the risk. This didn't pop up overnight folks... and lots of us have been eating venison out of this area for years. Wait till the statewide testing in WI is completed if you really want to see a panic, I for one don't think it's confined to one corner of the state, and all the surrrounding states are going to find themselves in our company soon enough.

Am I missing something, or does this disease survive cooking? I too see this as an overblown thing, the media is in the business of promoting fear. I live/hunt in illinois (I'm blessed because now I hunt in my backyard, all 600 acres of it) but I guess since I normally cook my food and don't mess around with brains and lymph gland sausage I won't be making any changes. I'm more concerned about West Nile Virus.

Communicable diseases are natures way of balancing overpopulation in a species, nothing new there. Time will tell whether this will affect deerhunting as we see it now, but the deer will recover eventually.

Mark, yes, it survives cooking.

It also survives the temperatures required to extrude cattle feeds (about 240 F), which would just about charcoal a steak.

A prion is not alive, it is essentially a protein. You can't kill it, and can't destroy it without creating ashes...... FWIW, Dutch.

I also hunt in WI and I wil also be eating my deer.

there was a pretty good discussion about CWD earlier

http://www.serveroptions.com/ubb/ultimatebb.php?ubb=get_topic;f=2;t=002350#000034

CritrChick makes some good points on that thread.

I am not surprised CWD was found in Illinois. When the CWD panic occurred in Wiscosnin, I asked the WI DNR if Illinois ever tested for CWD. The WIDNR said that little testing occurred in illinois. I suspect they are not the only place that there was no evidence of CWD in the deer herd because there was no testing.

I suspect we will find it more prevalent than previously suspected as the testing continues.

[ 11-07-2002, 01:47: Message edited by: rockhead ]