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Multiple states are preparing measures to monitor chronic wasting disease in their deer populations:
Despite rain and snow, thousands of Michigan hunters dragged their deer to check stations to be tested for chronic wasting disease — a condition that comes from the same family as "mad cow" disease.
"I was amazed that we had 150 deer come through the check station on the first day of gun season in Montcalm County," said Chad Stewart, Michigan Department of Natural Resources deer specialist. "Given the Wednesday opener and the bad weather, I was blown away."
Dollars generated from deer licenses and hunting-related purchases bring in millions in matching funds for habitat restoration and endangered species. They also help fund the testing for CWD, a demon of a disease that has been identified in 11 free-ranging Michigan deer and is feared to be on the verge of crossing over to humans. It just might alter the way we hunt forever.
"When they look back on the history of deer management in Michigan, these years will be considered pivotal to the culture of deer hunting," said Stewart. "I don't want people to think it's a death sentence for deer management. For now, there will be changes and additional restrictions. Change is hard to adapt to."
Montana drafting plans for hunt to monitor deer disease
Chronic wasting disease has been slowly spreading among deer, elk and moose in the Rocky Mountains, including Montana, Wyoming and Colorado. Symptoms include weight loss, listlessness and drooling.
Washington will restrict the import of deer carcasses from Montana.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by MostCynical on Tuesday November 28 2017, @02:10AM (10 children)
Mad cow came from feeding cows ground-up sheep brains.
What did the deer eat?
"I guess once you start doubting, there's no end to it." -Batou, Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex
(Score: 3, Informative) by ese002 on Tuesday November 28 2017, @03:17AM (5 children)
Scrapie [wikipedia.org] (the sheep disease) is persistent in soil. Eating brains is not required. So, perhaps the deer caught it from sheep.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by frojack on Tuesday November 28 2017, @04:36AM
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chronic_wasting_disease#Epidemiology [wikipedia.org]
Pooped out, in the soil, then the grass, then eaten again.
Maybe the lush grass is the best tasting to the deer, but its likely to be best fertilized and the most infected.
It wouldn't be the first time we've seen that played out: Anthrax makes grass lush too: https://soylentnews.org/article.pl?sid=14/10/01/1039257 [soylentnews.org]
No, you are mistaken. I've always had this sig.
(Score: 1, Insightful) by aristarchus on Tuesday November 28 2017, @05:30AM (3 children)
And, of course, it is not a disease, or at least not one with microbial or viral agent. It is proteins getting off on the wrong foot, folding the wrong way, and the next thing you know you are voting Republican and hold Trump to the be greatest precedent evar! Look up "Kuru Disease" for a human varient. Cannibalism: not just wrong because it is un-neighborly.
(Score: 2, Informative) by rylyeh on Tuesday November 28 2017, @06:04AM (2 children)
Prions are only destroyed when heated to 3000° F.
I like the X-Files 'Chaco chicken - good food, good people!'
Creutzfeldt–Jakob [wikipedia.org] syndrome is a bitch!
"a vast crenulate shell wherein rode the grey and awful form of primal Nodens, Lord of the Great Abyss."
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday November 29 2017, @07:26PM (1 child)
Better information from https://consteril.com/prion-sterilization-guide/ [consteril.com]
* Option 1. Autoclave at 134°C for 18 minutes in a prevacuum sterilizer.
* Option 2. Autoclave at 132°C for 1 hour in a gravity displacement sterilizer.
* Option 3. Immerse in 1 N NaOH (1 N NaOH is a solution of 40 g NaOH in 1 L water) for 1 hour; remove and rinse in water, then transfer to an open pan and autoclave (121°C gravity displacement sterilizer or 134°C porous prevacuum sterilizer) for 1 hour.
* Option 4. Immerse in 1 N NaOH for 1 hour and heat in a gravity displacement sterilizer at 121°C for 30 minutes, then clean and subject to routine sterilization.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday November 30 2017, @06:00PM
I'm going to start soaking all my food in NaOH solution!
(Score: 3, Interesting) by Pav on Tuesday November 28 2017, @05:09AM (2 children)
YouTube is full of deer (and other herbivores) eating birds, carcasses etc... As an aside, the largest ever marsupial predator was called thylacoleo carnifex and was decended from a recent herbivorous ancestor, and had a dentition completely different from other mammalian carnivores as a result: https://youtube.com/watch?v=QEBz5JESZNU [youtube.com]
(Score: 3, Insightful) by MostCynical on Tuesday November 28 2017, @05:40AM (1 child)
Suppose a hungry herbivore isn't always a herbivore.
"I guess once you start doubting, there's no end to it." -Batou, Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday November 28 2017, @02:48PM
100% correct. There is no such thing as a herbivore. Calories gotten from eating meat are just too good to pass up. A cow will gladly eat a rabbit carcass. What soy boys do is more or less self-flagellation. That's fine, more ladies for the rest of us.
(Score: 2) by Kromagv0 on Tuesday November 28 2017, @01:50PM
My understanding is that CWD is initially spread to wild deer populations by the deer eating in close proximity (nose to nose basically) with infected domestic farm animals or eating from their food troughs. It then is likely spread in the wild populations where baiting is allowed because again there are piles of food put out where the deer are again eating in close proximity, nose to nose, to each other. Here in Minnesota there was an outbreak way up north of it several years back that started from deer eating food at an elk farm. Earlier this year some farmed deer tested positive for CWD in central Minnesota so all hunted deer in that area had to be checked as well and so far it doesn't appear that any have tested positive in that wild population. Down in south eastern Minnesota there has been an outbreak but they think it is from deer coming over Wisconsin where baiting is allowed. Despite baiting being illegal here lots of people do it or rig up bird feeders, a trash can filled with corn hanging in a tree waiting for a stiff breeze to blow so it dumps, out in the woods to skirt the law. I use to put out some food on my recreational property for the deer but it would never be lots and it would never be in a pile. It would instead be go pitch the 4 old jack-o-lanterns out in to the woods in different parts of the property, or shoot some sweet potatoes out into the woods out of a potato cannon.
T-Shirts and bumper stickers [zazzle.com] to offend someone