Chronic Wasting Disease (CWD) is a prion-based disease that is basically human created/human exacerbated.
CWD, like all the other prion-based diseases like Mad Cow, Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (CJD) are 100% fatal and unlike bacterial and viral disease agents, prions are extremely difficult to neutralize. Normal autoclave methods and incineration are ineffective at rendering prions not infectious.
Lands and objects once contaminated are, for practical purposes, contaminated for the foreseeable future.
State and federal agencies have been grappling with how to contain the spread of the disease with essentially no success. The disease continues to spread rapidly.
Efforts have mainly been based on increased surveillance and increased culling. In spite of these efforts, the spread has only accelerated.
Recently Jim Keen, D.V.M., Ph.D. published a paper titled Big Cats as Nature’s Check Against Disease – A summary of theoretical, empirical, and experimental evidence supporting predator cleansing of CWD in deer and elk herds by mountain lions and wolves.
What the report demonstrates is that large predators are far superior to humans in detecting diseased animals. Predators can detect diseased animals long before obvious symptoms of disease can be observed.
As a result, simply allowing normal predator prey balance i.e.not rendering top level predators functionally extirpated from ecosystems may be the best approach to dealing with the CWD problem we have created.
For those interested in prion diseases and wildlife health, this report is a must read.
Comments
I was never satisfied that CWD is a prion disease and I think that it is unfortunate that so many agencies simply rolled over and accepted this theory without more rigorous investigation. Hence the disease continues to spread.
Dr. Frank Bastians years of research was ignored even though he discovered a “new” resistant spiroplasm in brain tissue samples from white tailed deer, sheep and humans. This discovery plus existing knowledge of a known spiroplasm, ( S. mirum strain GT 48), which causes symptoms similar to CWD in lab animals should have led to increased research in this area.
The presence of Azetidine-2-carboxylic acid (AZE 1) in sugar beet products used in deer supplemental feeds could also be a problem. This chemical is a known protein “buster” and has been shown to damage tissues in small animals.
The range of investigation should not be constrained or cut off because of one theory.
Ugh – prions cause CWD. Nobody rolled over. The only real reason folks struggle with this linkage is because the implications of prion disease – its environmental persistence, its lethality, its potential for transmission, are hard to accept and address. The science is actually pretty straightforward.
Good topic, well put. Keen’s paper is marvelous.
I’ve been trying for a decade or two to get the game agencies in the northern Rockies to Consider wolves as essential weapons in the war against CWD, to no effect. They are bound hip to thigh to the livestock/land owners and hunters, and dare not take any action that might lose their support, regardless of the fact that allowing wolves to reach natural densities that would be effective in reducing CWD. Here’s an article by Todd Wilkinson from Mountain Journal. Way down toward the end he uses some remarks from me.
https://mountainjournal.org/predators-and-chronic-wasting-disease
Not mentioned elsewhere, here is a prime example of using shooters to depopulate white-tailed deer in an effort to slow the spread of CWD.
In searching state documents related to CWD management, I came upon this reference to Wisconsin’s efforts to use hunters to reduce its prevalence. Here are a few excerpts from them.
State of Wisconsin, Joint Legislative Audit Committee, 2006. An Evaluation. Chronic Wasting Disease. Department of Natural Resources. report 06-13.
http://www.lefis.state.wi.us/LaBreports/06-Highlights.htm
DNR accounted for $26.8 million of the $32.3 million spent on CWD through FY 2005-06. To date, DNR’s efforts to eradicate CWD have not been effective. DATCP has taken steps to limit the spread of CWD in farm-raised deer. Hunters must wait longer to receive CWD testing results for their deer. DHFS reviews potential effects of CWD on human health.
Ok . . . . . The box has been opened. Now for the specifics?
This is the stuff of dystopian nightmares. Good work humans!
Regarding native predators, humans should never kill or remove them. They are natural & necessary parts of their ecosystems, and they have as much right to live and thrive as humans do. The physical root causes here are human overpopulation and obsession with eating beef, and that’s ultimately what needs to be addressed.