Roundup: U.S. deer, elk populations vulnerable to Chronic Wasting Disease

Source: Xinhua| 2021-11-09 04:06:11|Editor: huaxia

by Julia Pierrepont III, Huang Heng

LOS ANGELES, Nov. 8 (Xinhua) -- As more infections of Chronic Wasting Disease (CWD) were reported in the U.S. western states after the start of the general deer and elk hunting season last week, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) warned that the disease similar to Mad Cow disease is spreading among deer, elk, moose and caribou populations.

CWD is a form of transmissible spongiform encephalopathies (TSE), also known as a prion disease. Prion diseases, like Mad Cow disease and now CWD, are rare neurodegenerative disorders that cause certain cellular proteins usually found in the brain to morph abnormally, leading to brain damage.

Once infected, CWD causes deer, elk, caribou and moose to waste away or die from neurological effects. It may take a year to three years for an infected animal to develop visible symptoms, such as fatal weight loss, listlessness, stumbling, and behavioral changes.

So far, CWD has been found in 25 states across the United States, as well as parts of Canada, Norway, Sweden, Finland, and South Korea. That is of grave concern because it is quite contagious and 100 percent fatal. There is no known treatment or vaccine.

Last week, three new cases were confirmed in three new Wyoming elk hunt areas, the Wyoming Game and Fish Department reported. The local authority warned hunters to be aware and discouraged people from consuming meat from any animal that is "obviously ill or tests positive for CWD."

In Montana, where the first CWD case was reported in 2017, till Oct. 26, one elk, three moose, 123 mule deer and 342 white-tailed deer statewide had been tested positive for CWD during that four-year span. However, the number rose up to total 495 as of Monday.

The Montana Fish and Wildlife Commission passed two regulations this year to help limit the spread of CWD, one centering on carcass disposal and another pertaining to masking scents.

Some states, like Minnesota, are pro-actively taking steps to prevent the outbreak from escalating.

Minnesota deer hunting season, which is considered something of a family tradition, opened with a bang on Saturday, as over 400,000 armed hunters took to the woods to bag a deer, including the state's governor, Tim Walz.

On a Twitter post, Walz released a video to commemorate the opening of the hunting season.

"We know it's time to bring family and friends together for this opportunity to enjoy the incredible blessings we have in our natural resources," he said.

"So, big thank you to all the landowners, all the hunters, and DNR (Minnesota's Department of Natural Resources) for what they do, and remember, each of us can do something to stop the spread of Chronic Wasting Disease," he encouraged.

Walz was referring to a new state requirement that deer shot in affected areas must be tested by the Minnesota's DNR to help control the spread of CWD. This will ensure that the meat is safe and untainted before hunters bring it home to their families to eat.

Any contaminated carcasses cannot be disposed of in the woods or through burial. They must be disposed of in designated metal dumpsters to avoid contaminating the ground soil and water table.

"This disease poses a clear, immediate and serious threat to Minnesota's wild deer, and these actions reflect what's at stake," said DNR Commissioner Sarah Strommen when the ban was enacted. "We are committed to doing everything we can to reduce the continued risk of CWD transmission in Minnesota, including from farmed deer to Minnesota's wild whitetails."

The Missouri Department of Conservation (MDC) also announced Monday that hunters who harvest deer in the MDC CWD zone counties on Saturday, Nov. 13 through 14, will be required take the deer or its head on the day it was killed to a sampling station.

MDC said the two days, the opening weekend of the November portion of firearms deer season, is the most popular two hunting days for most deer hunters. This mandate will allow the department to collect the most tissue samples in a short period of time.

Though no cases have been reported in humans so far, both the CDC and World Health Organization (WHO) warn against eating any part of an infected deer. They postulate that the most likely method of transmission would be ingesting infected meat or through direct human contact with infected animals, their feces or saliva.

It is not yet known if CWD can cross-over from animal hosts to humans. It has proven contagious to certain types of monkeys. The WHO has cautioned that it is important to keep all known prion diseases from entering the human food chain.

The Montana Department of Fish, Wildlife and Parks Game Management Bureau Chief Brian Wakeling also told a local radio station that there are no known cases of humans developing CWD after eating an infected animal, but noted that it was once true of Mad Cow Disease, which like CWD is a form of transmissible spongiform encephalopathy.

Though the incidence of CWD in the wild nationwide is still relatively low, the disease has spread in a few areas with infection rates exceeding 10 percent or even as high as 25 percent, according to the CDC.

Worse still, the incidence of infection among "captive" or farm-raised deer can be considerably higher and one farm herd reported 79 percent disease rate.

"Hunters are the most important aspect of keeping disease prevalence low," said DNR's Acting Big Game Program Coordinator, Todd Froberg, as reported by Minnesota's KARE News.

"The majority of our deer are shot on opening weekend. So, we can get a good number of samples and get an idea of distribution and prevalence of the disease and landscape in those areas." Enditem

KEY WORDS: US,DEER,Chronic Wasting Disease
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