CWD - new information

[wabi]

From another site - (I have no idea if it's true or not, just passing it along)

From this morning's paper:

Ever since chronic wasting disease was detected in Wisconsin nearly four years ago, hunters were reassured that they could greatly reduce their risk of getting the deadly neurological disorder by avoiding tissue from the brain and central nervous system of the animal.

Muscle tissue never has been shown to be infective, officials said. Not anymore. Researchers whose work was published Thursday in the journal Science say they have found infectious prions---the agents that are believed to cause chronic wasting disease---in the leg muscles of infected mule deer, a finding that's likely to raise concerns among many deer hunters.

"This shows muscle contains infected material," said senior author Glenn Telling, an associate professor of microbiology at the University of Kentucky. "Anybody who may be handling or eating infected deer may be inadvertently exposed."

The new report suggests that all so-called transmissible spongiform encepthalopathies, ranging from chronic wasting disease to mad cow disease, should be taken more seriously, said Michael Hansen, senior scientist with the Consumers Union.

"No hunter should eat anything until after an animal has been tested," said Hansen, a biologist. "This finding along with reports last year that CWD can move into primates should raise some serious questions for hunters."

In November, researchers at Creighton University and UW-Madison reported that chronic wasting disease could infect squirrel monkeys, a member of the same order as humans.

"This is the first reported transmission of CWD to primates," the authors wrote in the Journal of Virology.

The two squirrel monkeys were injected in the brain with the infectious material from mule deer. Within 34 months they developed degenerative brain disease. After the animals were euthanized, the classic sponge-like lesions common to prion diseases were found in their brains. The actual experiment was conducted in the 1980s by the late UW-Madison researcher Richard Marsh.

The authors said they presented the findings last year, along with some additional laboratory analysis, because of the mergence of chronic wasting disease in North America and its potential to infect humans.

But whether chronic wasting disease can infect people remains an open question. Some earlier laboratory research suggests it is possible, although there is a species barrier that likely would make a jump more difficult, researchers say.

Judd Aiken, a UW-Madison prion disease researcher, said the University of Kentucky study clearly shows for the first time that prions are present in deer muscle.

Had the study found the opposite, "We could start arguing for the potential safety of venison," said Aiken, a professor of animal health and biomedical sciences.

While the study does not prove that people can get brain disease from infected deer meat, it suggests that caution should be practiced, he said.

Aiken said he would not eat any vension from an area where the disease is known to exist, even if the animal tested negative for chronic wasting disease. That's because the available tests may not be sensitive enough to find the disease in the early stages, he said.

[A.W]

They said the same thing with mad cow in Britain years ago. They also said that it could take years to find out the extent of the nember of people infected. They're still diagnosing people in Britain.

[bow hunter]

This is very bad news and very scary. This could well end deer hunting in North America as we now know it. In future I could see governments having to higher sharp shooters to cull deer heards, because there are no longer enough hunters around willing to take the risk of killing and consuming venison. The only other alternative would be for them to provide a widespread testing program in order to test every deer killed before it is consumed. That could be very expensive. In Ontario we have yet to have a positive test on for CWD, but with more and more U.S states finding it each year, I wonder how long before we encounter it. With this kind of news, anybody in a jurisdiction that has been infected, I guess you will now have to ask yourself the important question of weather or not it is worth the risk. For me it would but one thing to consider eating it myself, but to consider feeding to my family, I would have to say a definite no. Even though we haven't had a positive in Ontario, I'm still torn as to weather I should allow my wife an kids to eat it. Anybody else as concerned about this as me.

[A.W]

London surgeries cancelled over CJD fears
05/12/2006 4:19:35 PM

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A Southern Ontario hospital has cancelled all surgeries after learning medical instruments may have been tainted by a suspected case of Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease.

CTV.ca News Staff

London Health Sciences Centre issued a statement on its website saying all surgeries and invasive clinical procedures at the University Hospital were cancelled Tuesday.

They took the precautionary measure after discovering a patient who may have the deadly human nerve disorder had undergone surgery last Thursday.

Officials say they were alerted to the possibility Monday night by a pathologist examining tissue samples.

Tests to determine if the instruments are contaminated by CJD are expected to be completed later this week.

Officials said Tuesday that they are still counting the number of patients who could have been in contact with the potentially tainted instruments.

The hospital has been following Health Canada guidelines on the sterile processing of instruments.

Hospital officials have also pulled reusable medical and surgical instruments and started a process to acquire disposable instruments and borrow instruments from other hospitals.

Officials sought to assure the public these measures were simply precautionary as the risk of infection is low.

"We are confident that we have contained the situation and that there is no risk to anyone who is arriving at University Hospital for care," officials said in a written statement.

Patients will be contacted to have their surgeries and procedures rescheduled.

A patient information call centre, which will be staffed between 7:30 a.m. ET and 9:00 p.m. has been established to address patient and family concerns at 1-866-313-5528.

Eating contaminated meat products has been linked to the rare but fatal variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease.

Symptoms include slow thinking, difficulty concentrating, impaired judgment and memory loss.

Later, these symptoms may lead to severe dementia associated with self-neglect, apathy or irritability and prominent muscle spasms.

Patients may eventually become completely bedridden, lapse into coma and die as a result of infection associated with being immobile, such as pneumonia

http://news.sympatico.msn.ctv.ca/TopSto ... yline=True

[rutman]

Your right, you are way more likely to be hit by a falling plane. Kill it butcher it, grill it. If we worried about every sickness that humans can for sure contract, you may never leave home. How about the hundreds of 13+ letter diseases that chickens are condemned for when they are shipped. Lets worry about the toxins in the great lakes and the future of edible fish. How about getting ecoli from spinnache(however you spell that) who cares?. Until somebody buys it from CWD beside me I'm smackin and chewin as much as I'm allowed.

[dnepr]

I gotta agree with rutman. Now I am off to cook up some deer steaks

[Farmer]

It may kill me but man does this venison taste good