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  1. #1
    Bogertophis's Avatar
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    "Deer Disease Poses Risks To General Public, Not Just Hunters"

    A quick preface, I live in an area where (wild) deer are plentiful & hunted. I never knew they are also farmed in captivity. Either way, I found this article to be potentially relevant to our own health on many levels. Sorry about the "wall of text" but it couldn't be helped.


    Deer Disease Poses Risks to General Public, Not Just Hunters

















    January 7, 2019


    Organic Consumers Association


    by Martha Rosenberg and Ronnie CumminsFood Safety



    deer_buck_antlers_field_meadow_1200x630.jpeg






    If you live in an urban area, should you be concerned about the spread of chronic wasting disease (CWD) in U.S. deer herds?
    CWD has caused hundreds of captive deer to be euthanized on commercial deer farms in Michigan, Wisconsin, Illinois, Iowa and Pennsylvania. The disease has also spread to non-captive (wild) deer herds.
    CWD hasn’t been widely publicized. So it’s no surprise that many people, whether they live in rural or urban areas, are unaware of the issue. But among those urban dwellers who are aware, there’s often little concern—because most people think CWD affects only rural areas, namely hunters and Departments of Natural Resources (DNRs) that depend on hunting licenses for revenue.
    In fact, recent scientific reports suggest that whether you live in the city, the suburbs or the country, you should be concerned about CWD—and you should take precautions.
    What is CWD?
    CWD is a fatal, transmissible neurological disease that affects members of the deer family, including white-tailed deer, mule deer, elk and moose.
    It’s called a “prion” disease because it’s caused by microscopic “prions,” defined by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) as “misfolded forms of proteins naturally found in the body . . . [that] can convert normally folded prion protein molecules into an infectious form when they come in contact with each other.”
    According to the NIH, these misshapen prion proteins clump together and accumulate in brain tissue. Once that happens, it’s impossible to get rid of them. They aren’t deactivated by cooking, heat, autoclaves, ammonia, bleach, hydrogen peroxide, alcohol, phenol, lye, formaldehyde or radiation.
    But here’s something that gets very little attention: Prions also remain in the soil indefinitely.
    Colorado Division of Wildlife personnel recently found out just how indestructible prions are when they tried to eradicate CWD from a contaminated facility. Staff treated the soil with chlorine, removed the treated soil, then applied another chlorine treatment to the remaining soil and let the facility remain vacant for more than a year.
    A year later, the soil still tested positive for the prion disease.
    In humans, a prion-related disease is called Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (CJD), a degenerative brain disease that leads to dementia and is ultimately fatal. CJD in humans is similar tobovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE), more commonly known as mad cow disease.
    Research suggests CWD not limited to animals and humans
    CWD is commonly thought to affect only animals. However, a 2015 study by University of Texas Health Science Center suggests that the leaves and roots of grass plants can bind, uptake and transport infectious prions.
    Even highly diluted amounts of the infected prion protein were absorbed by the roots and leaves of the grass plants, in as little as two minutes, according to the UT the researchers. When fed to hamsters, the prion-contaminated grass infected the hamsters.
    The fact that humans could eat grass plants—such as wheat grass, typically considered a health food—infected with CWD should give people pause, regardless of where they live.
    Here’s another reason for people who don’t live in rural areas to fear prion diseases like CWD: Researchers at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, the University of California at San Diego and UC-San Francisco, found that people with CJD have the prions in their eyes. That means there is a risk for the disease to spread via prion-contaminated instruments, during eye surgeries or even routine eye exams, according the researchers.
    As reported by Live Science, researchers "found prions in all eight regions of the eye that were tested, including the cornea, lens, ocular fluid, retina, choroid (a part of the eye that contains blood vessels and connective tissue), sclera (the white of the eye), optic nerve (which connects the back of the eye to the brain) and extraocular muscle (which controls eye movement)."
    Where do prion diseases come from?
    Mad cow disease (Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy (BSE), also transmitted by prions, is widely believed to stem from the cost-cutting practice of feeding cows to cows. Similarly, CWD may have man-made origins.
    Captive deer operations are a main source of CWD due to their concentration of animals, “communicability window” (from trophy stock trading and escaped animals) and questionable feed sources. In a four-part expose, the Indiana Star revealed how “the pursuit of deer bred for enormous antlers and shot in hunting pens” on trophy farms is spreading CWD at an alarming rate.
    Infected sheep may also be to blame. In the mid-1960s, the Department of Wildlife ran a series of nutritional studies on wild deer and elk at the Foothills Wildlife Research Facility in Fort Collins, Colorado. Soon after the studies began, however, Foothills deer and elk began dying from a mysterious disease.
    It turns out that the deer may have developed CWD as a result of being held at the same facility with sheep that had had scrapie, a fatal, degenerative prion disease affecting the central nervous system of sheep and goats. Research shows that white-tail deer exposed to scrapie are susceptible to developing CWD.
    Can you get Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (CJD) by eating CWD-infected deer meat?
    The official position of Departments of Natural Resources (DNR), which depend on revenue from deer-hunting licenses, is that humans can’t get CJD from eating venison from deer infected with CWD.
    Yet a 2002 Centers for Disease Control study contradicts that claim. The study, "Fatal Degenerative Neurologic Illnesses in Men Who Participated in Wild Game Feasts,” found numerous cases of hunters and/or men who ate venison who had developed CJD.
    To reduce their CWD risk, DNRs warn hunters to wear surgical gloves when cutting up deer and to avoid exposing open cuts or sores on their hands. They tell hunters not to eat a deer’s brain, eyeballs, spinal cord, spleen and lymph nodes. Yet, scientific articles say that muscle, blood, fat and other parts of the animal, including kidneys, pancreas, liver, saliva and antler velvet, also contain prions.
    What can consumers do to avoid risk?
    There are a number of ways you can limit your personal risk, and also help minimize the overall risk of the spread of CWD.
    Take these three critical steps to avoid personal risk:
    • Avoid eating venison, especially if it comes from “farmed” deer fed animal waste. Because it’s nearly impossible for deer processors to sterilize their equipment after each deer, cross-contamination is always a risk.
    • Avoid any meat that comes from a factory farm. Factory farms often feed confined animals slaughterhouse waste, or rendered animal protein. This practice is prohibited in organic meat production.
    • Make sure your eye doctor is aware of the new and concerning risks presented by patients who may have prion diseases.
    Here are some things you can do to help address the overall problem:
    • Call for an end to game farms. Deer breeding and “trophy farms” are a $4-billion/year industry. Farmers operate canned "hunts" in which bucks with trophy antlers can fetch six figures. Customers are guaranteed a kill, and the animals are sometimes drugged. Deer farm operators also sell antlers, velvet, urine and meat.
    • Protest the widespread trapping and killing of wolves. Wolves serve the important ecological purpose of culling diseased deer from the herd––a function which is lost when they are hunted and trapped.
    • Call on the CDC to require autopsies on people whose death certificate reads "Alzheimer’s disease" or "dementia." Many of these people, especially deer hunters, actually have died from CJD but are buried or cremated with no disclosure. The public deserves to know these risks, which can be transferred through surgical instruments and bodily fluids.
    Martha Rosenberg a freelance journalist and frequent contributor to the Organic Consumers Association (OCA). Ronnie Cummins is OCA’s International Director. To keep up with OCA’s news and alerts, sign up here.






    Last edited by Bogertophis; 01-14-2019 at 02:00 AM.

  2. #2
    Registered User Jellybeans's Avatar
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    Re: "Deer Disease Poses Risks To General Public, Not Just Hunters"

    Kinda scary....
    I haven't eaten venison in a long time. Lotsa deer in Texas

    Sent from my LGMP260 using Tapatalk

  3. #3
    Bogertophis's Avatar
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    I've never tried venison, but around here many people consume it, or they hunt & then donate the meat to those in need. And yes, this is scary.

  4. #4
    Registered User Jellybeans's Avatar
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    Re: "Deer Disease Poses Risks To General Public, Not Just Hunters"

    I think the government somehow tampers with things that they know we're going to consume to make our lives shorter that way we can't draw Social Security

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  5. #5
    Bogertophis's Avatar
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    Re: "Deer Disease Poses Risks To General Public, Not Just Hunters"

    Quote Originally Posted by Jellybeans View Post
    I think the government somehow tampers with things that they know we're going to consume to make our lives shorter that way we can't draw Social Security

    Sent from my LGMP260 using Tapatalk
    I don't think "the government" needs to worry one bit about that, as there is plenty of corporate greed to keep known-hazards plentifully consumed. They sure knew
    about cigarettes & lied, they knew about trans-fats (formerly known as partially-hydrogenated fats, & they put them in most every food they could think of) and lied,
    insisting that margarine is healthier than butter, & they even knew about asbestos in baby powder...etc. Don't get me started, lol. It's also corporations that try to
    get rid of unions...who do you think looks out for worker's safety? It's not the boss or the company you work for...if you get injured on the job, they'll make it out to
    be your own fault & you might even lose your job if they can get away with it. Workers are replaceable. Unions are the essential "balance of power".

    Last edited by Bogertophis; 01-14-2019 at 03:14 AM.

  6. #6
    BPnet Senior Member Lord Sorril's Avatar
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    Re: "Deer Disease Poses Risks To General Public, Not Just Hunters"

    I eat deer all the time--Statistically I am more worried about getting struck by lightning.
    *.* TNTC

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  8. #7
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    Re: "Deer Disease Poses Risks To General Public, Not Just Hunters"

    CWD has been a thing since I was a young kid eating venison. When everyone first heard about it everyone got paranoid and though the deer herd would die off. Here we are 2019 still deer and we are all still alive. I have zero concerns about this.

  9. #8
    BPnet Veteran KevinK's Avatar
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    Re: "Deer Disease Poses Risks To General Public, Not Just Hunters"

    Being from Wisconsin, I'm actually extremely familiar with CWD. It's most common in the southwestern portion of the state and I hunt in a county where it's extremely common actually. When it first emerged, the DNR tried to issue practically unlimited CWD tags....meaning you could shoot as many as three deer in a day, and turn around and shoot three more deer the next.

    Here's something important to remember however.....there has not been ONE single diagnosed case in a human. Statistically speaking, thousands of people have eaten CWD infected meat as well. When you get venison turned into sausage (which a majority of people do), the meat processor isn't doing individual batch processing unless you specify it. So, your trim is dumped into the mixing vat with the rest of the venison from other people's meat. Meaning there is a HIGH likelyhood that I myself have eaten CWD meat.

    Personally, I don't worry too much about it and I feel the DNR worries too much about it as well. White tails have an INCREDIBLY high rate of reproduction with a far majority of doe having a fawn every year. CWD hasn't affected population growth AT ALL....it's quite the opposite in the southern half of the state. Deer numbers remain and continue to grow, which is why the DNR issues a TON of tags and adds specialty hunts to reduce the numbers. They literally don't have enough hunters to thin the numbers.

    It's not a question of left vs right, government or no government......but a LOT of people in the state believe that there is a collaboration between the state and auto insurance companies to reduce herd numbers (via overhyping CWD). Deer collisions cost them a ton of money each year. I'm not sure if I believe it, but I'm just putting it out there. Don't know how this turned into a thread about union labor and corporate greed though lol.....
    Last edited by KevinK; 01-14-2019 at 12:12 PM.

  10. #9
    BPnet Veteran KevinK's Avatar
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    Re: "Deer Disease Poses Risks To General Public, Not Just Hunters"

    Furthermore

    "Protest the widespread trapping and killing of wolves. Wolves serve the important ecological purpose of culling diseased deer from the herd––a function which is lost when they are hunted and trapped"

    Actually wolves will certainly cull more than diseased animals from the herd, they eat a TON of fawns. When a federal judge declared any hunting of wolves to be illegal, deer population in the northern half of the state declined substantially while attacks on farm animals and dogs rose substantially. The actually DNR themselves encouraged a small hunt to manage wolf numbers to balance their predatory behavior upon endangered and susceptible species.....until ONE federal judge who has never stepped foot in the state for any reason decided he knew more than trained biologists who actually manage our resources. Also he didn't consider that the wolf breed reintroduced to Wisconsin was not a native one to begin with.

    I get it, wolves are beautiful animals and people want to see them protected. But what this reckless move has resulted in, is farmers and hunters occasionally shooting them to take care of the problem themselves. I don't encourage it, but if you're a farmer who has lost 30+ calves, what are you going to do? By removing ANY culling of the pack, you're left with the consequences of overpopulation and people taking management into their own hands.

    No one wants to listen to people who live next to them and actually deal with them. It's mainly a bunch of city residents who see a wolf in a majestic picture and think....LETS PROTECT THEM AT ALL COSTS, not knowing that there is a careful balance for every kind of species. The Wisconsin DNR GREATLY objected to the removal of the wolf hunt for a reason(which was very carefully managed, with every animal being registered and inspected by a warden).

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