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When Hampshire County hunters brought in 1,335 deer to be screened for chronic wasting disease last fall, biologists figured at least a few infected animals would turn up. One did. It was the only one. Wildlife officials are reluctant to celebrate because the disease — which creates symptoms in deer and elk similar to mad cow disease in cattle — is notoriously difficult to get rid of. But Paul Johansen, Division of Natural Resources assistant wildlife chief, calls it “positive news.” “When you’re looking for a silver lining in the whole [chronic wasting disease] scenario, this is positive news,” Johansen...

John Stauber recently stopped at a sporting goods store in Richland Center to get his chainsaw repaired. Earlier that day, Stauber says, the Legislative Audit Bureau reported that the Department of Natural Resources' $27 million plan to thin the state's deer herd in an attempt to eradicate chronic wasting disease has been a flop. And Stauber, director of the Madison-based Center for Media & Democracy, says most of those waiting in line to purchase deer hunting licenses were "laughing and ridiculing the DNR." "They saw this as another public funding fiasco where know-nothing game managers are wasting money and interfering...

Wisconsin has been one of the states most proactive in the battle against Chronic Wasting Disease (CWD). A form of the same fatal brain illness as mad cow disease, CWD actually forms holes in animals' brains, causing a variety of illnesses, including weight loss, tremors, odd - almost crazy behavior- and, eventually death. There are no reported instances of an infected animal having ever recovered from CWD. To date, deer and elk in 14 states have been found to have CWD. There is no evidence, however, that people have ever caught chronic wasting disease from infected deer or elk. Since...

·11250 Waples Mill Road ·   Fairfax, Virginia 22030    ·800-392-8683 Provision Authored by Senators Boxer and Feinstein Will Exterminate All Santa Rosa Elk and Mule Deer Wednesday, November 15, 2006 Fairfax, VA – Last month, President George W. Bush signed the 2007 Defense Authorization Act, which included an NRA-supported provision saving hundreds of elk and mule deer on Santa Rosa Island from the court-ordered extermination that was to begin in 2008 and be completed by 2011.However, yesterday, Sens. Barbara Boxer and Dianne Feinstein attached an amendment to the Military Construction Appropriations bill that will overturn current law and exterminate hundreds of healthy...

WASHINGTON (AP) - Deer probably spread the brain-destroying illness chronic wasting disease through their saliva, concludes a study that finally pins down a long-suspected culprit. The key was that Colorado researchers tested some special deer. Chronic wasting disease is in the same family of fatal brain illnesses as bovine spongiform encephalopathy and its human equivalent. There is no evidence people have ever caught chronic wasting disease from infected deer or elk. But CWD is unusual because, unlike its very hard-to-spread relatives, it seems to spread fairly easily from animal to animal. Scientists weren't sure how, primarily because studying large wild...

Mt. Horeb, Wis. — Hunters and landowners took the bad news in stride at the first public meeting in a series of five to be held around the state regarding chronic wasting disease (CWD). More than 1,000 people filled the Mt. Horeb High School gym on May 1 to learn about DNR proposals to eliminate the deer herd within the CWD core Eradication Zone, and reduce populations within the larger CWD Management Zone. Scott Craven, chairman of the UW-Madison Department of Wildlife Ecology told the audience the state faces a serious and potentially disastrous problem. The problem is even more...

CWD Cost There's now an estimated price tag on how much money chronic wasting disease could cost people in the state of Wisconsin. UW researchers say the hunting industry could suffer a $96-million shortfall, come this fall. It all depends on the amount of people who decide to hunt, and how they spend their money. The DNR says there's a direct tie between the money, and the uncertainty about CWD. "There's nothing fair about CWD, no matter which way you look at it, impact on hunters, on state agencies, it takes a lot of energy," said Tom Hauge, DNR...

Tommy Schulenberg eases his old Ford pickup onto the narrow shoulder of County Road J, just north of Mt. Horeb, Wis., and points down the grassy embankment to a line of trees about 50 yards away. "That's where he was shot," he tells me with the self-conscious grin of someone unaccustomed to much fuss. "We heard three shots and then I heard T.J. get on the walkie-talkie, breathing real hard, you know, and he said, 'Dad, I got a big one, get down here.' " The buck was a dandy all right. His rack was a perfect 12-pointer, a rarity...

MADISON (AP) — Landowners in an area where chronic wasting disease was first detected will be allowed to bait deer to aid in the eradication of the herd under an emergency rule approved Jan. 7 by Wisconsin’s Natural Resources Board. A statewide ban on baiting and feeding was imposed last year in an effort to stem the spread of chronic wasting disease, which scientists believe is spread by animal-to-animal contact. But the DNR board voted 6-1 to allow baiting in a 411-square-mile area around Mount Horeb. Members hope the bait piles will congregate deer and make it easier for landowners...

MADISON - Researchers continuing to examine the results of the chronic wasting disease sampling effort during the 2002 Wisconsin hunting seasons report that the data indicates older bucks have a higher prevalence of the fatal brain disease and that the disease is not uniformly distributed within the infected area. "We examined the data from nearly 2,000 adult deer within the area where CWD is most prevalent. For yearling deer, we found chronic wasting disease at equal levels in male and female yearlings, 3.2 percent and 3.6 percent, respectively," said Mike Samuel, veterinarian and lead CWD researcher with the U.S. Geological...

Wisconsin will be ablaze in bright orange early Saturday morning as 600,000 hunters take aim at a white-tailed deer herd that outnumbers the hunters by more than a 2-1 ratio. Almost lost in the hubbub for the start of the traditional nine-day gun deer season is the fact that Wisconsin is one of only 10 states in the country that has discovered chronic wasting disease in its deer herd. While the near panic about CWD has died down over the three years since the deadly disease was discovered in Wisconsin, the Department of Natural Resources still operates two disease eradication...

WISCONSIN RAPIDS — There is a huge demand for velvet antler in eastern Asia, but the specter of chronic wasting disease is holding up sales of the product directly to places like South Korea. That doesn’t mean that the highly sought after Chinese medicinal product isn’t getting there. It means it has to take the long way around, and producers in the United States are losing out, according to Shawn Richards of Global Velvet International. Mr. Richards spoke to members of the Wisconsin Commercial Deer and Elk Farmers Association last week at their annual convention in Wisconsin Rapids. Velvet antler...

Research could lead to better understanding of wasting diseases By The Associated Press GREAT FALLS -- Scientists at McLaughlin Research Center have discovered a new way to study prions, the infectious agents that cause brain-wasting diseases, and hope the work could lead to a better understanding of who is more at risk to contract such diseases. Scientists infected stem cell cultures from fetal mouse brains with prions and found the infection could be detected within weeks. Injecting mice with the prions and waiting for infection to develop can take months and sometimes years. The tissue cultures allow the researchers to...

Scientists have confirmed that prions, the mysterious proteins thought to cause chronic wasting disease (CWD) in deer, latch on tightly to certain minerals in soil and remain infectious. The discovery that prions stay deadly despite sticking to soil comes as a surprise, because while many proteins can bind to soil, that binding usually changes their shapes and activities. In a paper published in the journal PLoS Pathogens (April 14), scientists at the University of Wisconsin-Madison suggest that certain soil types serve as natural prion repositories in the wild. As animals regularly consume soil to meet their mineral needs, it's possible...

Deer and elk that are infected with mad cow-like disease, known as chronic wasting disease (CWD), carry infectious agents called prions in their leg muscles, indicating that those handling and eating infected deer meat may contract the same disease, University of Kentucky researchers reported on Jan. 26 in the journal Science. This newfound evidence is shocking because the public has been informed that the infectious prion protein for CWD was only present in parts of the nervous system such as brains and backbones. It was thought in the past that only nervous tissues from infected deer were susceptible to spreading...

Infectious prions found in deer meat Research finds the matter, which causes chronic wasting disease, in muscle. It had been thought to be only in nervous-system tissue. By Katy Human Denver Post Staff Writer A person who eats venison could swallow the proteins shown to cause a deadly brain disease in deer, elk and moose, researchers reported today. Their article in the journal Science represents the first time scientists have found the proteins that cause the affliction, chronic wasting disease, in the meat and muscle of deer. Previously, it had been found only in the brain, spinal and lymph tissues....

A ProMED-mail post ProMED-mail, a program of the International Society for Infectious Diseases [1] Date: 2 Apr 2005 From: ProMED-mail Source: NY Dept. of Agriculture press release [edited] 2nd Case of CWD Found in Oneida County Deer State's Trace Back Finds 2nd Positive CWD in Herd Directly Linked to Index Herd ----------------------------------------------- A 2nd positive case of chronic wasting disease (CWD) in New York State has been confirmed in a white-tailed deer from a captive herd in Oneida County that is directly linked to the herd where a white-tailed doe was found positive for CWD earlier this week. CWD is...

Scientists are reporting that, for the first time, they have made an artificial prion, or misfolded protein, that can, by itself, produce a deadly infectious disease in mice and may help explain the roots of mad cow disease. The findings, being reported on Friday in the journal Science, are strong evidence for the so-called "protein only hypothesis," the controversial idea that a protein, acting alone without the help of DNA or RNA, can cause certain kinds of infectious diseases. The concept was introduced in 1982 by Dr. Stanley Prusiner, a neurology professor at the University of California in San Francisco,...

New Research Supports Theory that Indirect Transmission of Chronic Wasting Disease Possible in Mule Deer Arlington, Va.—A team of researchers has reported that chronic wasting disease (CWD) can be transmitted through environments contaminated by whole carcasses or excrement of animals infected with the pathogen that causes CWD. The research confirms long-held theories that CWD can be indirectly spread through environmental sources, in addition to direct interactions between infected and healthy mule deer. Funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF) and the National Institutes of Health, the study results were published on-line last week in the journal Emerging Infectious Diseases....

WASHINGTON -- Agriculture officials said Thursday they have received preliminary independent confirmation that the United States has its first case of mad cow disease as federal investigators labored to trace the path the infected cow took from birth to slaughter. Scientists at the Veterinary Laboratories Agency in Waybridge, England, concur with the reading of tests on the stricken Holstein cow that led U.S. officials to conclude the cow had the brain-wasting disease, said U.S. Agriculture Department spokeswoman Alisa Harrison. "We are considering this confirmation," Harrison said, adding the English lab still will conduct its own test using another sample from...

Fears that a bit of tainted tissue might slip into ground meat or contaminate inviting-looking cuts of prime beef have made some consumers jittery and threatened U.S. beef exports. Major supermarkets in Oregon stopped selling ground beef from certain suppliers and asked consumers to voluntarily return ground beef products. From shoppers checking labels to cattle ranchers trying to quell fears about mad cow disease, Oregonians reacted Wednesday to the first known case of the disease in the United States: Oregon agriculture officials waited for further instructions from the U.S. Department of Agriculture and prepared to spend Christmas dealing with the...

MABTON, Wash. - Residents of this tiny south central Washington town rallied around neighboring dairy owners as news leaked that a local farm was the source of what could be the nation's first case of mad cow disease. There are about eight dairy farms in Mabton _ population 2,045 _ and dozens more in the surrounding area. A government source familiar with the investigation told The Associated Press that the cow came from Sunny Dene Ranch in Mabton. Mayor David Conradt said he did not expect "any financial hit" to the town, as long as the disease is limited to...

LONDON - Fears about a suspected U.S. case of mad cow disease spread quickly abroad Wednesday, with 10 countries blocking the import of American beef after a cow in Washington state tested positive for the illness. Japan, the world's top importer of U.S. beef in terms of value, imposed an indefinite ban and planned to recall certain meat products already on the market, while South Korea halted customs inspections of American beef and suspended sales for meat already on supermarket shelves. Mexico, Russia, Brazil, Australia, Taiwan, Singapore, Thailand and Malaysia also banned the imports, as did the Chinese territory of...

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Inspections for Mad Cow Lag Those Done Abroad By MARIAN BURROS and DONALD G. McNEIL Jr. In discussing the case of mad cow disease apparently found in Washington State, Secretary of Agriculture Ann Veneman said yesterday that her department had tested 20,526 cattle for mad cow disease last year. But that is only a small percentage of the 35 million commercially slaughtered each year. Because no domestic cases of mad cow disease have been found before, the United States has never put in place the kind of stringent testing done in Japan and some European countries, where every animal is...

SEATTLE, Dec 23 (Reuters) - Meat from a cow with the deadly mad cow disease may have already been eaten, possibly in the form of hamburger, Washington State Deputy Director of Agriculture Bill Brookerson said on Tuesday. Asked at a press conference if it was possible that the meat had already been consumed, Brookerson replied: "It's possible."

Japan halts US beef importsFrom correspondents in TokyoDecember 24, 2003JAPAN has temporarily banned the import of American beef after the US reported its first suspected case of mad cow disease, an official said today. "We are now withholding the issuance of import permits" on US beef, said Japanese agriculture ministry spokesman Hiroaki Ogura. "That means for now, (beef) imports have been banned." He said the measure enacted early this morning was temporary until further information could be gathered. US Agriculture Secretary Ann Veneman announced that a cow from Washington state had tested positive for bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE), or mad...

<p>WASHINGTON — The first suspected case of mad cow disease (search) in the United States has been discovered in Washington state, but officials took immediate action Tuesday to ensure the safety of American beef.</p> <p>"We remain confident in the safety of our food supply," Agriculture Secretary Ann Veneman told a hastily assembled news conference.</p>

Source: Mad Cow Disease Found in Washington State Tue December 23, 2003 05:18 PM ET WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Mad cow disease has been found in Washington state, a U.S. industry official said on Tuesday, in what would be the first incidence of the disease in the United States. The official, who wished not to be identified, said she was unsure of how many cases were found.

The mule deer buck fled halfway up the side of a steep, snow-covered field in Rocky Mountain National Park before the drugs kicked in and he collapsed. That's when a team of biologists and park rangers carefully approached the tranquilized animal. They covered him in a blanket, and put a cloth around his head and over his eyes. Then two rangers used a device resembling a miniature ladder to hold the deer's jaw open while technician Celine Pliessnig stuck a foot-long metal instrument down the animal's throat and snipped off a small piece of his tonsils. That sample will be...

State researchers tracking disease threatening deer Task force is developing defense plan to keep chronic wasting disease at bay By Susan Vela Lansing State Journal As another deer-hunting season generates millions for the state's economy, Michigan is scrambling to keep chronic wasting disease from entering its borders. A state task force is on the cusp of releasing recommendations designed to wall out the fatal brain illness, which has damaged Wisconsin's hunting industry since deer started dying there two years ago. Michigan hunters have been banned from hauling whole carcasses across state lines, a strategy officials say is necessary since no...

A place called the eradication zone, lying about 40 miles west of Madison, Wis., covers some 411 square miles. There thousands of white-tailed deer live--or rather, used to live. Last year the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources instituted special hunting periods to try to wipe out upward of 18,000 deer. During the fall, dead deer were taken to registration areas, where state employees in protective suits and gloves dragged carcasses from pickup trucks and lifted them onto plastic-covered picnic tables. With hacksaws, they severed the heads, double-bagged them and sent them for testing; the bodies themselves were incinerated. The Dairy...

Survey lists reasons people skipped deer hunt Chronic Wasting Disease, lack of time cited Leader-Telegram correspondent Chronic wasting disease was one of many reasons deer hunters chose to not hunt last year, according to a recently completed survey. The Department of Natural Resources and UW-Madison polled 2,100 gun deer hunters from all areas of the state. Names were selected at random from a list of gun deer license buyers from 2001. Most hunters who responded -- from 88 to 90 percent -- said they hunted the same or more in 2002 than in past years. Of those hunters who chose...

Colorado Purposely Exposed Elk to Chronic Wasting Disease ! Finger-pointing about wasting disease escalatesBy DAVE BUCHANAN The Daily Sentinel A 1990 grazing study on the Western Slope by Colorado Division of Wildlife purposely using elk exposed to chronic wasting disease was a mistake, but it's time to move on, DOW officials said Friday. The study, which included allowing 150 wild elk to graze in pens near Maybell that previously were used by the disease-exposed elk, was a "bad call," said Jeff Ver Steeg, the DOW's terrestrial wildlife section leader. But published accusations from Delta veterinarian Dick Steele that the experiment...

What state officials aren't telling you about chronic wasting disease - - the politics and blunders behind its spread and true dangers. When I spoke to Wisconsin Division of Public Health Epidemiologist James Kazmierczak on September 13, he had the cheeriness of a man about to leave for a three week vacation. A day earlier, his department had dispatched a news release intending to quell the "paranoia" haunting the state since a front-page Milwaukee Journal Sentinel story suggested that the chronic wasting disease in the state deer herd might infect humans....

IS THE USDA TRYING TO SCARE OFF HUNTERS? MARK A SITY 9/26/02 Last fall Chronic Wasting Disease (CWD) was discovered for the first time in WI. It has been present in the west for years, but this is the first time it has crossed the Mississippi River. It is a disease very similar to "mad cow disease", only it affects deer instead. Deer hunters (including myself) are very concerned about eating the meat from infected animals. The best known defense for limiting the spread of this disease is to thin the deer population. Having a lot of hunters in the...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Bush administration said on Wednesday it will test up to 750,000 wild deer and elk annually for a contagious, brain-wasting disease that may be spreading throughout the country.The deadly ailment, known as chronic wasting disease (CWD), has affected nine Western and Midwestern states. Federal officials said they expect five new outbreaks each year for the next three years.Scientists do not know whether CWD can infect humans who eat meat from diseased animals, but the World Health Organization has advised against eating venison or any part of an animal showing signs of the disease.CWD has been found...

<p>Landowners and hunters in Wisconsin this week will begin the unprecedented killing of all the white-tailed deer — up to 15,000 — in a part of the state where the deer are affected by a disease similar to Britain's mad cow disease.</p>

Following is a synopsis of the current knowledge about scrapie and resource information. Causative agent, transmission:Scrapie is a tranmissable spongiform encephalopathy widely thought to be caused by a misfolded prion protein that accumulates in the brain. However, there are also two other theories--that the agent is a virus with unusual characteristics, or a virino, a small, noncoding regulatory nucleic acid coated with a host-derived protective protein. According to Dr. Katherine O'Rourke, a USDA research microbiologist in Pullman, Washington, "Infection is believed to be caused by ingestion of that misfolded protein (through the placenta and placental fluids) by the lamb or...