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Sunday, April 21, 2013

Politicians ignore alarming CWD spike in Wyoming valley Wisconsin

 
Politicians ignore alarming CWD spike in Wyoming valley Wisconsin





Patrick Durkin column: Politicians ignore alarming CWD spike in Wyoming valley






About one out of every three bucks age 2.5 years and older carries CWD in north-central Iowa County, as does one out of every six yearling bucks (1.5 years old). / Patrick Durkin/For Wisconsinoutdoorfun.com



Written by Patrick Durkin




Those who think Wisconsin should just “learn to live” with chronic wasting disease are seeing their surrender take shape as “nature takes its course” on our deer herd.


In fact, folks near Spring Green are living the realities of such clichés. One farmer in the Wyoming valley of north-central Iowa County has shot 21 CWD-positive deer from his family’s 700 acres since 2008, with 11 falling since April 2012.


Those are just a few of the sick deer in a 144-square-mile area where CWD is rising at “unprecedented” rates. That one-word assessment came from Bryan Richards, CWD project leader at the U.S. Geological Survey’s National Wildlife Health Center in Madison after reviewing the latest CWD reports from Robert Rolley, a Department of Natural Resources researcher in the wildlife science bureau.


Rolley, Richards and about 50 other citizens, biologists and agency staff were at the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point on April 6 to help implement 62 recommendations from the “Deer Trustee Report,” Dr. James Kroll’s guide to revamping Wisconsin deer management.


Rolley, too, used one word — “frightening” — to assess CWD’s increase in the 12-by-12-mile area around the Wyoming valley. The eastern border of this diseased block abuts CWD’s core area (northeastern Iowa and northwestern Dane counties), where the disease was first discovered 11 years ago.


What constitutes “unprecedented” and “frightening”? First, realize the infection rate in the core area is increasing about 10 percent annually. That resembles annual infection rates of mule deer in southeastern Wyoming’s Converse area, where 40 to 50 percent of the herd is infected.


Now consider north-central Iowa County:



■ CWD’s annual growth rate for all deer (both sexes combined) 2.5 years and older is 27 percent.



■ Annual disease rates for adult bucks (18 months and older) are doubling every two to three years.



■ Roughly every third buck 2.5 years and older is infected, as is one in every six yearling bucks (18 months old). Infected deer live two years or less.



(Page 2 of 2)



■ Although the number of diseased females is lower, the infection rate for does 2.5 years and older is growing 38 percent annually, faster than for males.



“I’m not aware of data anywhere showing wild, free-range deer with similar infection rates,” Richards said. “The only thing worse was the Stan Hall farm (Buckhorn Flats, near Almond), whose penned herd of 76 deer went from one sick deer to 60 in five years.”


That might sound like mere statistics to some, but not to Matt Limmex, 49, an Iowa County dairy farmer who has spent his life on the family’s property. Of the 11 sick deer killed on Limmex’s lands the past year, six fell during 2012 gun seasons.


The other five? Limmex shot them at the DNR’s request after noticing the “droolers and shakers” near his farmyard. In three cases, they were so sick they couldn’t flee when Limmex approached. The DNR retrieved the carcasses for testing and disposal.


“I hate to see this,” Limmex said. “It’s disheartening. I just want to get sick deer off the landscape.”


Limmex said his family deploys about 14 hunters each year during gun season. They’ve also used agricultural shooting permits since 1991 to control the herd. Even so, this is the first time he senses deer numbers decreasing.


“It seems like the disease might be affecting the herd now,” he said.


So, what’s causing CWD rates in the Wyoming valley to exceed those in the original disease zone? And will it shrink local herds, as experts have long predicted? No one knows, and our state and federal governments aren’t inclined to find out.


The only current DNR-funded deer research by the University of Wisconsin is studying whether predators are affecting Northwoods whitetails. Meanwhile, Professor Michael Samuel at UW-Madison is using federal funds to study if deer leave CWD-causing prions in feces, breeding scrapes and mineral licks. But that’s ending soon.


“We’re puzzled by what’s going on in the Wyoming valley,” Samuel said. “It’s very disturbing, but CWD research is on the way out. We could generate hypotheses and proposals to study what’s behind the increases, but I doubt we’d get the funding. There’s little interest in CWD these days, Wisconsin and nationwide.”


Imagine that. The world’s most “disturbing,” “frightening” and “unprecedented” CWD case is growing next door to our capital and flagship university, and our government won’t crack a window to sniff it.


Meanwhile, no group or coalition of hunters, doctors, veterinarians or environmentalists is holding politicians accountable or funding the research themselves.


There’ll be no shortage of shame as this stench spreads.




















> There’ll be no shortage of shame as this stench spreads.




it’s all about money. no one cares about a long incubating disease, that once clinical, is 100% fatal in all species, i.e. the TSE prion disease. Politicians have been ignoring all TSE prions, and risks there from. somebody better start caring, soon. ...tss


























Tuesday, April 16, 2013



Cervid Industry Unites To Set Direction for CWD Reform and seem to ignore their ignorance and denial in their role in spreading Chronic Wasting Disease












Monday, April 01, 2013


Dr. Deer/Dough from Texas on Wisconsin’s CWD implementation survey, is now available










Tuesday, December 18, 2012


*** A Growing Threat How deer breeding could put public trust wildlife at risk








yep, while the Texas deer czar dr. dough was off to Wisconsin pushing the privately owned shooting pen industry (livestock cervids industry), Texas fell to CWD, and just reported 4 more CWD postives. ...





for your information...





According to Wisconsin’s White-Tailed Deer Trustee Dr. James Kroll, people who call for more public hunting opportunities are “pining for socialism.” He further states, “(Public) Game management is the last bastion of communism.” “Game Management,” says James Kroll, driving to his high-fenced, two-hundred-acre spread near Nacogdoches, “is the last bastion of communism.” Kroll, also known as Dr. Deer, is the director of the Forestry Resources Institute of Texas at Stephen F. Austin State University, and the “management” he is referring to is the sort practiced by the State of Texas. The 55-year-old Kroll is the leading light in the field of private deer management as a means to add value to the land. His belief is so absolute that some detractors refer to him as Dr. Dough, implying that his eye is on the bottom line more than on the natural world.



Kroll, who has been the foremost proponent of deer ranching in Texas for more than thirty years, doesn’t mind the controversy and certainly doesn’t fade in the heat. People who call for more public lands are “cocktail conservationists,” he says, who are really pining for socialism. He calls national parks “wildlife ghettos” and flatly accuses the government of gross mismanagement. He argues that his relatively tiny acreage, marked by eight-foot fences and posted signs warning off would-be poachers, is a better model for keeping what’s natural natural while making money off the land.






Tuesday, July 10, 2012


Dr. James C. Kroll Texas deer czar final report on Wisconsin








Friday, June 01, 2012


*** TEXAS DEER CZAR TO WISCONSIN ASK TO EXPLAIN COMMENTS








Thursday, March 29, 2012


TEXAS DEER CZAR SAYS WISCONSIN DNR NOT DOING ENOUGH ABOUT CWD LIKE POT CALLING KETTLE BLACK








Tuesday, July 10, 2012


Chronic Wasting Disease Detected in Far West Texas











Monday, February 11, 2013


TEXAS CHRONIC WASTING DISEASE CWD Four New Positives Found in Trans Pecos









Monday, April 15, 2013


Deer farmers in the state of Louisiana are under a quarantine due to Chronic Wasting Disease CWD









Monday, January 16, 2012


9 GAME FARMS IN WISCONSIN TEST POSITIVE FOR CWD











pens, PENS, PENS ???




*** Spraker suggested an interesting explanation for the occurrence of CWD. The deer pens at the Foot Hills Campus were built some 30-40 years ago by a Dr. Bob Davis. At or abut that time, allegedly, some scrapie work was conducted at this site. When deer were introduced to the pens they occupied ground that had previously been occupied by sheep.









now, decades later ;




2012


PO-039: A comparison of scrapie and chronic wasting disease in white-tailed deer


Justin Greenlee, Jodi Smith, Eric Nicholson US Dept. Agriculture; Agricultural Research Service, National Animal Disease Center; Ames, IA USA


Interspecies transmission studies afford the opportunity to better understand the potential host range and origins of prion diseases. The purpose of these experiments was to determine susceptibility of white-tailed deer (WTD) to scrapie and to compare the resultant clinical signs, lesions, and molecular profiles of PrPSc to those of chronic wasting disease (CWD). We inoculated WTD intracranially (IC; n = 5) and by a natural route of exposure (concurrent oral and intranasal (IN); n = 5) with a US scrapie isolate. All deer were inoculated with a 10% (wt/vol) brain homogenate from sheep with scrapie (1ml IC, 1 ml IN, 30 ml oral). All deer inoculated by the intracranial route had evidence of PrPSc accumulation. PrPSc was detected in lymphoid tissues as early as 7 months-post-inoculation (PI) and a single deer that was necropsied at 15.6 months had widespread distribution of PrPSc highlighting that PrPSc is widely distributed in the CNS and lymphoid tissues prior to the onset of clinical signs. IC inoculated deer necropsied after 20 months PI (3/5) had clinical signs, spongiform encephalopathy, and widespread distribution of PrPSc in neural and lymphoid tissues. The results of this study suggest that there are many similarities in the manifestation of CWD and scrapie in WTD after IC inoculation including early and widespread presence of PrPSc in lymphoid tissues, clinical signs of depression and weight loss progressing to wasting, and an incubation time of 21-23 months. Moreover, western blots (WB) done on brain material from the obex region have a molecular profile similar to CWD and distinct from tissues of the cerebrum or the scrapie inoculum. However, results of microscopic and IHC examination indicate that there are differences between the lesions expected in CWD and those that occur in deer with scrapie: amyloid plaques were not noted in any sections of brain examined from these deer and the pattern of immunoreactivity by IHC was diffuse rather than plaque-like. After a natural route of exposure, 100% of WTD were susceptible to scrapie. Deer developed clinical signs of wasting and mental depression and were necropsied from 28 to 33 months PI. Tissues from these deer were positive for PrPSc by IHC and WB. Similar to IC inoculated deer, samples from these deer exhibited two different molecular profiles: samples from obex resembled CWD whereas those from cerebrum were similar to the original scrapie inoculum. On further examination by WB using a panel of antibodies, the tissues from deer with scrapie exhibit properties differing from tissues either from sheep with scrapie or WTD with CWD. Samples from WTD with CWD or sheep with scrapie are strongly immunoreactive when probed with mAb P4, however, samples from WTD with scrapie are only weakly immunoreactive. In contrast, when probed with mAb’s 6H4 or SAF 84, samples from sheep with scrapie and WTD with CWD are weakly immunoreactive and samples from WTD with scrapie are strongly positive. This work demonstrates that WTD are highly susceptible to sheep scrapie, but on first passage, scrapie in WTD is differentiable from CWD.










2011



*** After a natural route of exposure, 100% of white-tailed deer were susceptible to scrapie.








Scrapie in Deer: Comparisons and Contrasts to Chronic Wasting Disease (CWD)



Justin J. Greenlee of the Virus and Prion Diseases Research Unit, National Animal Disease Center, ARS, USDA, Ames, IA provided a presentation on scrapie and CWD in inoculated deer. Interspecies transmission studies afford the opportunity to better understand the potential host range and origins of prion diseases. We inoculated white-tailed deer intracranially (IC) and by a natural route of exposure (concurrent oral and intranasal inoculation) with a US scrapie isolate. All deer inoculated by the intracranial route had evidence of PrPSc accumulation and those necropsied after 20 months post-inoculation (PI) (3/5) had clinical signs, spongiform encephalopathy, and widespread distribution of PrPSc in neural and lymphoid tissues. A single deer that was necropsied at 15.6 months PI did not have clinical signs, but had widespread distribution of PrPSc. This highlights the facts that 1) prior to the onset of clinical signs PrPSc is widely distributed in the CNS and lymphoid tissues and 2) currently used diagnostic methods are sufficient to detect PrPSc prior to the onset of clinical signs. The results of this study suggest that there are many similarities in the manifestation of CWD and scrapie in white-tailed deer after IC inoculation including early and widespread presence of PrPSc in lymphoid tissues, clinical signs of depression and weight loss progressing to wasting, and an incubation time of 21-23 months. Moreover, western blots (WB) done on brain material from the obex region have a molecular profile consistent with CWD and distinct from tissues of the cerebrum or the scrapie inoculum. However, results of microscopic and IHC examination indicate that there are differences between the lesions expected in CWD and those that occur in deer with scrapie: amyloid plaques were not noted in any sections of brain examined from these deer and the pattern of immunoreactivity by IHC was diffuse rather than plaque-like. After a natural route of exposure, 100% of white-tailed deer were susceptible to scrapie. Deer developed clinical signs of wasting and mental depression and were necropsied from 28 to 33 months PI. Tissues from these deer were positive for scrapie by IHC and WB. Tissues with PrPSc immunoreactivity included brain, tonsil, retropharyngeal and mesenteric lymph nodes, hemal node, Peyer’s patches, and spleen. While two WB patterns have been detected in brain regions of deer inoculated by the natural route, unlike the IC inoculated deer, the pattern similar to the scrapie inoculum predominates.



Committee Business:


The Committee discussed and approved three resolutions regarding CWD. They can be found in the report of the Reswolutions Committee. Essentially the resolutions urged USDA-APHIS-VS to:


Continue to provide funding for CWD testing of captive cervids


Finalize and publish the national CWD rule for Herd Certification and Interstate Movement


Evaluate live animal test, including rectal mucosal biopsy, for CWD in cervids










2011 Annual Report


Research Project: TRANSMISSION, DIFFERENTIATION, AND PATHOBIOLOGY OF TRANSMISSIBLE SPONGIFORM ENCEPHALOPATHIES Location: Virus and Prion Research Unit


2011 Annual Report


In Objective 1, Assess cross-species transmissibility of transmissible spongiform encephalopathies (TSEs) in livestock and wildlife, numerous experiments assessing the susceptibility of various TSEs in different host species were conducted. Most notable is deer inoculated with scrapie, which exhibits similarities to chronic wasting disease (CWD) in deer suggestive of sheep scrapie as an origin of CWD.


snip...


4.Accomplishments 1. Deer inoculated with domestic isolates of sheep scrapie. Scrapie-affected deer exhibit 2 different patterns of disease associated prion protein. In some regions of the brain the pattern is much like that observed for scrapie, while in others it is more like chronic wasting disease (CWD), the transmissible spongiform encephalopathy typically associated with deer. This work conducted by ARS scientists at the National Animal Disease Center, Ames, IA suggests that an interspecies transmission of sheep scrapie to deer may have been the origin of CWD. This is important for husbandry practices with both captive deer, elk and sheep for farmers and ranchers attempting to keep their herds and flocks free of CWD and scrapie.









White-tailed Deer are Susceptible to Scrapie by Natural Route of Infection


Jodi D. Smith, Justin J. Greenlee, and Robert A. Kunkle; Virus and Prion Research Unit, National Animal Disease Center, USDA-ARS


Interspecies transmission studies afford the opportunity to better understand the potential host range and origins of prion diseases. Previous experiments demonstrated that white-tailed deer are susceptible to sheep-derived scrapie by intracranial inoculation. The purpose of this study was to determine susceptibility of white-tailed deer to scrapie after a natural route of exposure. Deer (n=5) were inoculated by concurrent oral (30 ml) and intranasal (1 ml) instillation of a 10% (wt/vol) brain homogenate derived from a sheep clinically affected with scrapie. Non-inoculated deer were maintained as negative controls. All deer were observed daily for clinical signs. Deer were euthanized and necropsied when neurologic disease was evident, and tissues were examined for abnormal prion protein (PrPSc) by immunohistochemistry (IHC) and western blot (WB). One animal was euthanized 15 months post-inoculation (MPI) due to an injury. At that time, examination of obex and lymphoid tissues by IHC was positive, but WB of obex and colliculus were negative. Remaining deer developed clinical signs of wasting and mental depression and were necropsied from 28 to 33 MPI. Tissues from these deer were positive for scrapie by IHC and WB. Tissues with PrPSc immunoreactivity included brain, tonsil, retropharyngeal and mesenteric lymph nodes, hemal node, Peyer’s patches, and spleen. This work demonstrates for the first time that white-tailed deer are susceptible to sheep scrapie by potential natural routes of inoculation. In-depth analysis of tissues will be done to determine similarities between scrapie in deer after intracranial and oral/intranasal inoculation and chronic wasting disease resulting from similar routes of inoculation.


see full text ;









how many states have $465,000., and can quarantine and purchase there from, each cwd said infected farm, but how many states can afford this for all the cwd infected cervid game ranch type farms ???




? game farms in a state X $465,000., do all these game farms have insurance to pay for this risk of infected the wild cervid herds, in each state ???




how many game farms, are too many game farms ?




when you have states handing out shooting pen permits like candy on halloween, just to advance their coffers, then other states wanting to do the same thing, with most all of them ignoring the science on shooting pens and cwd, what do you expect is going to happen.




when is enough, enough ?




Tuesday, December 20, 2011


CHRONIC WASTING DISEASE CWD WISCONSIN Almond Deer (Buckhorn Flats) Farm Update DECEMBER 2011


The CWD infection rate was nearly 80%, the highest ever in a North American captive herd.


RECOMMENDATION: That the Board approve the purchase of 80 acres of land for $465,000 for the Statewide Wildlife Habitat Program in Portage County and approve the restrictions on public use of the site.


Form 1100-001


(R 2/11)


NATURAL RESOURCES BOARD AGENDA ITEM


SUBJECT: Information Item: Almond Deer Farm Update


FOR: DECEMBER 2011 BOARD MEETING


TUESDAY


TO BE PRESENTED BY TITLE: Tami Ryan, Wildlife Health Section Chief





SUMMARY:













SEE MORE USAHA REPORTS HERE, 2012 NOT PUBLISHED YET...TSS
















the captive cervid industry has been helping spreading cwd for decades into the wild, to other farms, and to other countries (Korea), and it's high time to stop it. if you are fortunate enough to have a bunch of land and a bunch of money, that should not give you the right to pen up a bunch of cervids, modify these cervids to look like an alien with it's man made spreads, then put a cow bell on the back of a truck at feeding time, pay an absurd fee to shoot these straw bred bucks, call it livestock, and then go out and shoot it and call it hunting i.e. a sport, and then spread cwd to hail and back. to me, it would be like going out on a big hunt, in the pasture down the street and killing a cow every time i want to eat a steak, mounting the head, hanging it on the wall, and calling it a sport. i just don't see it, but if some folks have to do it, for whatever reason, and it's legal, i think you must have an insurance policy from Loyd's of London or whom ever, that would cover what ever cost to that state you are in, if a case of cwd is detected on your farm, to cover the cost to that state, for ever farm that is confirmed with cwd. that should put a fast track on validated a cwd live test, which they have, to test cervids, and rapidly expedite the validating of the many other cwd/tse/prion test that are in the pipeline. but if you don't test, if you don't test correctly, if you don't test all ages, if you don't test in large enough numbers to find, if you don't test where you know it might be, you probably will not find it. ...







WILD DEER AND ELK



NUMBER OF CWD TESTING WILD DEER AND ELK 2002 - 2012 = 910,136.











VOLUNTARY captive shooting pen farmed deer and elk program



number of CWD testing samples 2002-2012 = 188,624.











this is minus the SSS policy of the dead captive cervids found $ (old mountain lion must have eaten it???), or (that old sickly looking deer that might have CWD, just happened to escape???) ;















i have included in this report, SOME HISTORY ON CAPTIVE SHOOTING PENS IN NORTH AMERICA, AND CWD THERE FROM...













see full text ;


Saturday, April 13, 2013


Tennessee Launches CWD Herd Certification Program in the wake of legislation for game farms









P35



ADAPTATION OF CHRONIC WASTING DISEASE (CWD) INTO HAMSTERS, EVIDENCE OF A WISCONSIN STRAIN OF CWD



Chad Johnson1, Judd Aiken2,3,4 and Debbie McKenzie4,5 1 Department of Comparative Biosciences, University of Wisconsin, Madison WI, USA 53706 2 Department of Agriculture, Food and Nutritional Sciences, 3 Alberta Veterinary Research Institute, 4.Center for Prions and Protein Folding Diseases, 5 Department of Biological Sciences, University of Alberta, Edmonton AB, Canada T6G 2P5


The identification and characterization of prion strains is increasingly important for the diagnosis and biological definition of these infectious pathogens. Although well-established in scrapie and, more recently, in BSE, comparatively little is known about the possibility of prion strains in chronic wasting disease (CWD), a disease affecting free ranging and captive cervids, primarily in North America. We have identified prion protein variants in the white-tailed deer population and demonstrated that Prnp genotype affects the susceptibility/disease progression of white-tailed deer to CWD agent. The existence of cervid prion protein variants raises the likelihood of distinct CWD strains. Small rodent models are a useful means of identifying prion strains. We intracerebrally inoculated hamsters with brain homogenates and phosphotungstate concentrated preparations from CWD positive hunter-harvested (Wisconsin CWD endemic area) and experimentally infected deer of known Prnp genotypes. These transmission studies resulted in clinical presentation in primary passage of concentrated CWD prions. Subclinical infection was established with the other primary passages based on the detection of PrPCWD in the brains of hamsters and the successful disease transmission upon second passage. Second and third passage data, when compared to transmission studies using different CWD inocula (Raymond et al., 2007) indicate that the CWD agent present in the Wisconsin white-tailed deer population is different than the strain(s) present in elk, mule-deer and white-tailed deer from the western United States endemic region.








PPo3-7:



Prion Transmission from Cervids to Humans is Strain-dependent



Qingzhong Kong, Shenghai Huang,*Fusong Chen, Michael Payne, Pierluigi Gambetti and Liuting Qing Department of Pathology; Case western Reserve University; Cleveland, OH USA *Current address: Nursing Informatics; Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center; New York, NY USA


Key words: CWD, strain, human transmission


Chronic wasting disease (CWD) is a widespread prion disease in cervids (deer and elk) in North America where significant human exposure to CWD is likely and zoonotic transmission of CWD is a concern. Current evidence indicates a strong barrier for transmission of the classical CWD strain to humans with the PrP-129MM genotype. A few recent reports suggest the presence of two or more CWD strains. What remain unknown is whether individuals with the PrP-129VV/MV genotypes are also resistant to the classical CWD strain and whether humans are resistant to all natural or adapted cervid prion strains. Here we report that a human prion strain that had adopted the cervid prion protein (PrP) sequence through passage in cervidized transgenic mice efficiently infected transgenic mice expressing human PrP, indicating that the species barrier from cervid to humans is prion strain-dependent and humans can be vulnerable to novel cervid prion strains. Preliminary results on CWD transmission in transgenic mice expressing human PrP-129V will also be discussed.


Acknowledgement Supported by NINDS NS052319 and NIA AG14359.





PPo2-27:



Generation of a Novel form of Human PrPSc by Inter-species Transmission of Cervid Prions



Marcelo A. Barria,1 Glenn C. Telling,2 Pierluigi Gambetti,3 James A. Mastrianni4 and Claudio Soto1 1Mitchell Center for Alzheimer's disease and related Brain disorders; Dept of Neurology; University of Texas Houston Medical School; Houston, TX USA; 2Dept of Microbiology, Immunology & Molecular Genetics and Neurology; Sanders Brown Center on Aging; University of Kentucky Medical Center; Lexington, KY USA; 3Institute of Pathology; Case western Reserve University; Cleveland, OH USA; 4Dept of Neurology; University of Chicago; Chicago, IL USA


Prion diseases are infectious neurodegenerative disorders affecting humans and animals that result from the conversion of normal prion protein (PrPC) into the misfolded and infectious prion (PrPSc). Chronic wasting disease (CWD) of cervids is a prion disorder of increasing prevalence within the United States that affects a large population of wild and captive deer and elk. CWD is highly contagious and its origin, mechanism of transmission and exact prevalence are currently unclear. The risk of transmission of CWD to humans is unknown. Defining that risk is of utmost importance, considering that people have been infected by animal prions, resulting in new fatal diseases. To study the possibility that human PrPC can be converted into the infectious form by CWD PrPSc we performed experiments using the Protein Misfolding Cyclic Amplification (PMCA) technique, which mimic in vitro the process of prion replication. Our results show that cervid PrPSc can induce the pathological conversion of human PrPC, but only after the CWD prion strain has been stabilized by successive passages in vitro or in vivo. Interestingly, this newly generated human PrPSc exhibits a distinct biochemical pattern that differs from any of the currently known forms of human PrPSc, indicating that it corresponds to a novel human prion strain. Our findings suggest that CWD prions have the capability to infect humans, and that this ability depends on CWD strain adaptation, implying that the risk for human health progressively increases with the spread of CWD among cervids.





PPo2-7:



Biochemical and Biophysical Characterization of Different CWD Isolates



Martin L. Daus and Michael Beekes Robert Koch Institute; Berlin, Germany


Key words: CWD, strains, FT-IR, AFM


Chronic wasting disease (CWD) is one of three naturally occurring forms of prion disease. The other two are Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease in humans and scrapie in sheep. CWD is contagious and affects captive as well as free ranging cervids. As long as there is no definite answer of whether CWD can breach the species barrier to humans precautionary measures especially for the protection of consumers need to be considered. In principle, different strains of CWD may be associated with different risks of transmission to humans. Sophisticated strain differentiation as accomplished for other prion diseases has not yet been established for CWD. However, several different findings indicate that there exists more than one strain of CWD agent in cervids. We have analysed a set of CWD isolates from white-tailed deer and could detect at least two biochemically different forms of disease-associated prion protein PrPTSE. Limited proteolysis with different concentrations of proteinase K and/or after exposure of PrPTSE to different pH-values or concentrations of Guanidinium hydrochloride resulted in distinct isolate-specific digestion patterns. Our CWD isolates were also examined in protein misfolding cyclic amplification studies. This showed different conversion activities for those isolates that had displayed significantly different sensitivities to limited proteolysis by PK in the biochemical experiments described above. We further applied Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy in combination with atomic force microscopy. This confirmed structural differences in the PrPTSE of at least two disinct CWD isolates. The data presented here substantiate and expand previous reports on the existence of different CWD strains.











UPDATED DATA ON 2ND CWD STRAIN




Wednesday, September 08, 2010


CWD PRION CONGRESS SEPTEMBER 8-11 2010










Friday, February 08, 2013


*** Behavior of Prions in the Environment: Implications for Prion Biology








Friday, November 09, 2012


*** Chronic Wasting Disease CWD in cervidae and transmission to other species








Sunday, November 11, 2012


*** Susceptibilities of Nonhuman Primates to Chronic Wasting Disease November 2012








Friday, December 14, 2012


Susceptibility Chronic Wasting Disease (CWD) in wild cervids to Humans 2005 – December 14, 2012








Monday, November 14, 2011


WYOMING Creutzfeldt Jakob Disease, CWD, TSE, PRION REPORTING 2011









Wednesday, November 16, 2011


Wisconsin Creutzfeldt Jakob Disease, CWD, TSE, PRION REPORTING 2011









Sunday, November 13, 2011


COLORADO CWD CJD TSE PRION REPORTING 2011










The potential impact of prion diseases on human health was greatly magnified by the recognition that interspecies transfer of BSE to humans by beef ingestion resulted in vCJD. While changes in animal feed constituents and slaughter practices appear to have curtailed vCJD, there is concern that CWD of free-ranging deer and elk in the U.S. might also cross the species barrier. Thus, consuming venison could be a source of human prion disease. Whether BSE and CWD represent interspecies scrapie transfer or are newly arisen prion diseases is unknown. Therefore, the possibility of transmission of prion disease through other food animals cannot be ruled out. There is evidence that vCJD can be transmitted through blood transfusion. There is likely a pool of unknown size of asymptomatic individuals infected with vCJD, and there may be asymptomatic individuals infected with the CWD equivalent. These circumstances represent a potential threat to blood, blood products, and plasma supplies.




















http://transmissiblespongiformencephalopathy.blogspot.com/




TSS

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