Chronic Wasting Disease or CWD as it is commonly called is a disease that infects deer and elk. It was first know in a small section out west but has now spread to a number of areas outside of the original area. The disease causes holes to form in the brain of the infected animal and death follows in every infected animal. The disease is very similiar to Mad Cow disease and so this has caused a great deal of concern among hunters.
Well there is good news and there is bad news on the CWD front. Bad News first. So far areas that have become infected are still infected and show no signs of subsiding. Erradication zones have often been formed with the hope of eliminating the disease by drastically reducing population densities but infection rates in those areas has not decreased despite the much lower deer densities. Infection rates could reach as high as 30 percent if the disease continues on its present course in these areas.
Questions like will the disease eventually cover all areas that have deer populations through out the USA and Canada and down into Mexico are yet to be answered and it will be many many years before that will happen if it ever does. Other questions that can affect local economies are things such as "will hunters continue to hunt and eat deer from areas of infection or will they take their money elsewhere? Only time will tell.
OK now for a little bit of good news. Fear of getting infected from eating an infected animal have been knocked down a number of notches. Never is a big word and a long time so a 100% definitive answer on deer to human transmission might never be know but we have taken a major step in showing that it can not occur.
A species of monkey (Cynomolgus macaques) that is genetically very similiar to humans genetically and is often used in animal testing because of this similarity has been put through a test to determine if they can be infected with the CWD causing prions. After six years of exposure through direct oral transmission the Monkeys have shown no signs of infection.
The study is ongoing because although it only takes short time (~1 to 2 years) for symptoms to show in deer it might take much longer in humans. So the study is ongoing.
There was a great fear... almost a panic that if the spread could not be stopped and if the transmition to humans was possible then the long tradition of deer hunting could be lost forever. Well that fear, although not totally put to rest has been dealt another serious blow that we can all feel good about.
