Sunday, March 02, 2014

BIG WIN FOR SHOOTING PENS FROM BRAKKE BLUNDER THANKS TO JUDGE, BIG LOSS FOR WILD CERVIDS AND POSSIBLE HUMANS FROM CWD

BIG WIN FOR SHOOTING PENS FROM BRAKKE BLUNDER THANKS TO JUDGE, BIG LOSS FOR WILD CERVIDS AND POSSIBLE HUMANS FROM CWD

 

Finally a Win for Industry

 

Started by Rhonda Brakke , Feb 27 2014 08:56 PM

 

Posted February 27 2014 - 08:56 PM

 

We won our DNR case! Though the battle is not over, it is wonderful to have some positive news!! Thank you all for your support!! Tom and Rhonda

 

Posted February 28 2014 - 08:30 AM

 

This means the judge ruled that DNR lacks jurisdiction to quarantine our 330DNR acre property for five years!

 


 

>>> This means the judge ruled that DNR lacks jurisdiction to quarantine our 330DNR acre property for five years!

 

THEN WHO DOES $$$

 

IF THE DNR DOES NOT HAVE JURISDICTION FOR QUARANTINE, I pray that someone can stop this farm from just opening up their gates again. that act in my opinion was criminal.

 

IF THE DNR DOES NOT HAVE JURISDICTION, AND THE USDA INC REFUSES TO ACT ;

 

*** 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. ...

 

also, see where even decades back, the USDA had the same thought as they do today with CWD, not their problem...see page 27 below as well, where USDA stated back then, the same thing they stated in the state of Pennsylvania, not their damn business, once they escape, and they said the same thing about CWD in general back then ;

 

”The occurrence of CWD must be viewed against the contest of the locations in which it occurred. It was an incidental and unwelcome complication of the respective wildlife research programmes. Despite it’s subsequent recognition as a new disease of cervids, therefore justifying direct investigation, no specific research funding was forthcoming. The USDA veiwed it as a wildlife problem and consequently not their province!” ...page 26.

 


 

 

”The occurrence of CWD must be viewed against the contest of the locations in which it occurred. It was an incidental and unwelcome complication of the respective wildlife research programmes. Despite it’s subsequent recognition as a new disease of cervids, therefore justifying direct investigation, no specific research funding was forthcoming. The USDA viewed it as a wildlife problem and consequently not their province!” ...page 26.

 

 

*** sound familiar $$$

 

 

Sunday, January 06, 2013

 

USDA TO PGC ONCE CAPTIVES ESCAPE

 

*** "it‘s no longer its business.” ***

 


 

 

THEN WHO WILL REGULATE AND PROTECT THE WILD CERVIDS AND HUMANS FROM CWD FROM THESE SHOOTING PENS, AND AT WHAT COST TO THE TAX PAYER ???

 

 

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.

 

SUMMARY:

 


 

 

Thursday, February 09, 2012

 

50 GAME FARMS IN USA INFECTED WITH CHRONIC WASTING DISEASE

 


 

Friday, February 03, 2012

 

Wisconsin Farm-Raised Deer Farms and CWD there from 2012 report Singeltary et al

 


 

Saturday, February 22, 2014

 

*** New chronic wasting disease rules enhance risks professor John Fischer of the University of Georgia told the 37th meeting of the Southeast Deer Study Group

 


 

Wednesday, August 21, 2013

 

IOWA DNR EMERGENCY CONSENT ORDER IN THE MATTER OF TOM & LINDA BRAKKE D/B/A PINE RIDGE HUNTING LODGE UPDATE AUGUST 21, 2013

 

snip...

 

5. On July 16, 2012, DNR received a notice from the Texas Veterinary Medical Diagnostic Lab ("Texas Vet Lab”) that a sample from an adult male deer killed at Pine Ridge tested presumptively positive for CWD. (DNR has an agreement with the Texas Vet Lab to run these preliminary tests.) Because the Texas Vet Lab found this presumptive positive result, protocols required the sample to be sent to the National Veterinary Services Laboratory ("National Lab”) in Ames, Iowa for final confirmation. On July 18, 2012, the National Lab confirmed the positive CWD result in the deer.

 

6. On July 19, 2012, DNR notified the Brakkes of the positive test by phone. Mr. Brakke was out of state.

 

snip...

 

12. The Brakkes depopulated the Hunting Preserve, as specified in the Agreement, from September 10, 2012 to January 31, 2013. As part of this effort, the Brakkes, the staff and their customers killed 199 captive deer and nine captive elk. The DNR obtained 170 CWD samples. (Samples were not taken from fawns and one adult female who was killed in a manner that made sampling impossible.) Of these 199 deer, two additional adult male deer tested positive for CWD. Information provided by the Brakkes confirmed that these two additional deer originated from the Brakke Breeding Facility.

 

13. DNR installed, with the Brakke's permission, an interior electric fence on October 1 and 2, 2012.

 

14. The Brakkes cleaned and disinfected, under DNR supervision, the feeders and ground surrounding the feeders on April 5, 2013.

 

15. On April 26, 2013, the Brakkes hand-delivered a notice to the DNR’s Chief of Law Enforcement Bureau, notifying the DNR that they would no longer operate a hunting preserve on the Quarantined Premises. The Brakkes did not reveal any plans to remove the fence around the Quarantined Premises or to remove the gates to and from the Quarantined Premises in this April 26, 2013 letter.

 

16. On June 3, 2013, DNR became aware that sections of the exterior fence surrounding the Quarantined Premises had been removed and that some, if not all, of the exterior gates to and from the Quarantined Premises were open.

 

17. On June 4, 2013, DNR received reports from the public in the area that four wild deer were observed inside the Quarantined Premises.

 

18. On June 5, 2013, DNR conducted a fence inspection, after gaining approval from surrounding landowners, and confirmed that the fenced had been cut or removed in at least four separate locations; that the fence had degraded and was failing to maintain the enclosure around the Quarantined Premises in at least one area; that at least three gates had been opened; and that deer tracks were visible in and around one of the open areas in the sand on both sides of the fence, evidencing movement of deer into the Quarantined Premises.

 

IV. CONCLUSIONS OF LAW

 

snip...

 

Wednesday, August 21, 2013

 

IOWA DNR EMERGENCY CONSENT ORDER IN THE MATTER OF TOM & LINDA BRAKKE D/B/A PINE RIDGE HUNTING LODGE UPDATE AUGUST 21, 2013

 


 

Wednesday, July 31, 2013

 

Iowa Brakke Family Farmed CWD livestock update July 3, 2013

 


 

Friday, December 14, 2012

 

IOWA Second Deer Positive for CWD at Davis County Hunting Preserve Captive Shooting Pen

 


 

Friday, September 21, 2012

 

Chronic Wasting Disease CWD raises concerns about deer farms in Iowa

 


 

Tuesday, September 11, 2012

 

Agreement Reached with Owner to De-Populate CWD Deer at Davis County Hunting Preserve Iowa

 


 

Wednesday, September 05, 2012

 

Additional Facility in Pottawatamie County Iowa Under Quarantine for CWD after 5 deer test positive

 


 

Friday, July 20, 2012

 

CWD found for first time in Iowa at hunting preserve

 


 

Update: The quarantine placed on the property in Davis County, which resulted from the positive CWD tests described above, was recently violated. Attached below are the Emergency Order DNR issued and the Emergency Consent Order DNR entered into in response to that violation. The case is currently pending a hearing, which is scheduled for November of 2013. DNR’s attorneys are working with the Attorney General’s Office and our staff to defend the DNR in this case and we look forward to a resolution on this matter that will support our efforts in Iowa to have a CWD-free deer population.

 


 

DNR Emergency Consent Order, agreed upon July 3, 2013

 


 

Iowa has tested over 42,500 wild deer and over 4,000 captive deer and elk as part of the surveillance efforts since 2002 when CWD was found in Wisconsin. Samples are collected from all 99 counties in Iowa; however the majority are taken in the counties nearest to areas where CWD has been detected in other states. Samples are collected voluntarily from hunter-harvested deer at check stations and meat lockers. The Iowa Department of Natural Resources is keeping a close eye on the deer population as a disease spreads across the Midwest.

 

"What we are doing is an important part of the national CWD surveillance and monitoring effort," said Dr Dale Garner, bureau chief for the wildlife bureau. "It is needed to give us a good picture of what is going on within the deer population."

 

Hunter participation was completely voluntary and the DNR thanks all hunters that assisted with the CWD surveillance by providing deer heads for testing.

 

Note: It should be pointed out that this testing for the CWD agent is not a food safety test. At this writing, it is not believed that humans can contract CWD by eating venison; however, the Center for Disease Control and the World Health Organization recommends that hunters do not eat the brain, eyeballs, or spinal cord of deer, and that hunters wear protective gloves while field dressing game.

 

Also, hunters cannot transport into Iowa the whole carcass of any cervid (i.e., deer, elk, moose or caribou) taken from a CWD endemic area within any state or province. Only the boned-out meat, the cape, and antlers attached to a clean skull plate from which all brain tissue has been removed are legal to transport into Iowa.

 

For the latest updates available on EHD and CWD:

 

Epizootic Hemorrghagic Disease (EHD)

 


 

Chronic Wasting Disease (CWD)

 


 


 

BRAKKE EMERGENCY ORDER

 


 


 

Thursday, August 08, 2013

 

Characterization of the first case of naturally occurring chronic wasting disease in a captive red deer (Cervus elaphus) in North America

 


 

Sunday, December 08, 2013

 

IOWA DNR to Continue Surveillance for Chronic Wasting Disease CWD TSE PRION DISEASE

 


 

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. ...

 

also, see where even decades back, the USDA had the same thought as they do today with CWD, not their problem...see page 27 below as well, where USDA stated back then, the same thing they stated in the state of Pennsylvania, not their damn business, once they escape, and they said the same thing about CWD in general back then ;

 

”The occurrence of CWD must be viewed against the contest of the locations in which it occurred. It was an incidental and unwelcome complication of the respective wildlife research programmes. Despite it’s subsequent recognition as a new disease of cervids, therefore justifying direct investigation, no specific research funding was forthcoming. The USDA veiwed it as a wildlife problem and consequently not their province!” ...page 26.

 


 

”The occurrence of CWD must be viewed against the contest of the locations in which it occurred. It was an incidental and unwelcome complication of the respective wildlife research programmes. Despite it’s subsequent recognition as a new disease of cervids, therefore justifying direct investigation, no specific research funding was forthcoming. The USDA veiwed it as a wildlife problem and consequently not their province!” ...page 26.

 

*** sound familiar $$$

 

Sunday, January 06, 2013

 

USDA TO PGC ONCE CAPTIVES ESCAPE

 

*** "it‘s no longer its business.”

 


 

Saturday, February 04, 2012

 

*** Wisconsin 16 MONTH age limit on testing dead deer Game Farm CWD Testing Protocol Needs To Be Revised

 


 

14 YEARS AGO

 

THE YEAR 2000

 

Stop the madness: CWD threatens Wisconsin's elk, deer and, ultimately, people.

 

15 July 00

 

The Isthmus magazine By BRIAN McCOMBIE

 

Imagine a disease worse than AIDS rippling through Wisconsin's deer herd. One that's always fatal, cannot be tested for in live animals, and has the chance of spreading to anyone who eats the infected venison. Sound like the premise for Michael Crichton's next apocalyptic thriller?

 

Unfortunately, such a disease already exists in epidemic levels in the wilds of Colorado and Wyoming. It's infected some game farms, too, and Wisconsin game farmers have imported more than 350 elk with the potential for this disease, including elk from farms known to be infected.

 

"If most people knew what kind of risk this disease poses to free-ranging deer in the state, they'd be very concerned," says Dr. Sarah Hurley, Lands Division administrator for the Department of Natural Resources. The DNR is now testing free-ranging deer around these game farms for the disease: "We're focusing our energies on those areas where we think there's the greatest possibility of transmission."

 

The malady the DNR's looking for is chronic wasting disease (CWD)--better known, to the extent it is known at all, as mad elk disease. It's a form of the mad cow disease that devastated Britain's cattle industry in the 1980s, scared the bejesus out of the populace, and is believed to have killed at least 70 people to date. An elk or deer with CWD can be listless, may walk in circles, will lose weight and interact progressively less with fellow animals.

 

The corresponding human affliction is called Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (pronounced Croytz-feld Yawkob) or CJD. People with CJD experience symptoms similar to Alzheimer's, including memory loss and depression, followed by rapidly progressive dementia and death, usually within one year. While CJD is rare (literally one in a million odds of getting it), over the last few years at least three deer hunters have died of it. There is no proof either way whether they contracted the disease from CWD-infected venison, but new research says it is possible.

 

All three varieties--mad cow, mad elk and CJD--belong to a family of diseases called transmissible spongiform encephalopathy. These diseases alter the conformation of proteins in the brain called prions; after-death brain samples usually show a series of microscopic holes in and around brain cells.

 

No one is exactly sure how mad elk disease spreads. At first, transmittal through blood seemed likely, as from mother to fawn. But CWD has moved between adult animals at game farms, leading scientists to conclude that it can be spread through saliva or simple contact. Also, the rates of transmission are higher in areas where animals have the most opportunities for contact. Wisconsin's concentrated population of 1.7 million deer interact freely with each other, and scientific modeling suggests CWD could tear through our deer herd devastatingly fast. Despite the danger, Wisconsin and other states are relying on only sporadic testing and a system of voluntary compliance. It's a system that some say has more holes in it than a CWD-infected brain.

 

At present, Wisconsin game farm owners, even those harboring elk and deer brought in from farms with known cases of CWD, do not have to call a veterinarian if a deer or elk suddenly dies or acts strange. They're also not required to inform the state Department of Natural Resources (DNR) or the Department of Agriculture, Trade and Consumer Protection (DATCP) if animals escape into the wild.

 

"The lax attitude is pretty shocking," says John Stauber, a Madison activist and co-author of Mad Cow U.S.A. To protect people and deer, Stauber argues for an immediate importation ban for game farms, plus programs of testing and surveillance. He suggests both DATCP and DNR aren't taking such measures because, as the regulators in charge, they don't want to find the CWD he thinks is likely already in state. "It's in their bureaucratic interest to not [actively] look for CWD in the game farms," says Stauber. "Because if they find it, who's to blame?"

 

In the wild and especially out west, chronic wasting disease is spreading fast. Northeastern Colorado documented its first case in 1981. By the mid-1990s, samplings of mule deer brains showed 3% to 4% testing positive for CWD. Within a few years, the rate was 8%, and now Larimer County, the center of the endemic area, has a 15% rate of infection among mule deer. It's also being found in deer and elk in Wyoming.

 

"Fifteen percent of a wild population of animals with this disease is staggering," says Dr. Thomas Pringle, who tracks CWD-type diseases for the Sperling Biomedical Foundation in Eugene, Ore. "It's basically unheard of. This appears to be an unusually virulent strain. with highly efficient horizontal transmission mechanisms."

 

CWD could eventually spread to Wisconsin on its own, animal to animal. But that would take decades. Game farms, though, provide a mechanism to cut through all that time and distance and drop CWD smack in the middle of the state.

 

An open-records search by Isthmus reveals that the first shipment of farm elk from areas with CWD in the wild occurred in 1992, with 66 Colorado elk going to a game farm in Plymouth. In April 1998, DATCP was informed that a Bloomer game farm had purchased one elk from a Nebraska farm later found to be CWD-infected. This prompted a Sept. 15, 1998, memo from Steven Miller, head of the DNR's Lands Division, to Secretary George Meyer, with copies to DATCP chief Ben Brancel and Gov. Tommy Thompson. In it, Miller recommends that Wisconsin follow the lead of Montana (which found CWD on two game farms) and place "a moratorium on the importation of all game farm animals.... At present it appears the only way to help assure the disease does not spread into Wisconsin."

 

But the moratorium was never put in place, so it's possible that even more elk potentially carrying CWD are now in state.

 

Instead of a moratorium, Wisconsin has opted for testing. It is among 12 states and two Canadian provinces that currently test deer for CWD. Last year, the Wisconsin DNR began testing road- and hunter-killed deer in 1999 within a five-mile radius of game farms that have brought in elk from CWD-infected areas. Test areas include all or part of Fond du Lac, Dodge, Jefferson, Sheboygan and Washington counties. All of the approximately 250 brains examined in 1999 came back negative; this year, 500 to 600 deer will be tested.

 

Meanwhile, DATCP is asking owners of game farms that have animals from herds known to have cases of CWD infection to voluntarily enter a surveillance program. The agency's top veterinarian, Dr. Clarence Siroky, argues that voluntary compliance makes more sense than a moratorium because, ban or no ban, game farm operators "are going to find a way to bring these animals into the state. We don't have police patrols and impregnable borders to keep anything in or out."

 

With voluntary compliance, Siroky says, at least there are records of animals entering the state. So if CWD or other diseases are discovered, the animals can be traced back to their original herds and other farms they may have been at. "It's better to know where the animals are coming in from," he insists.

 

Siroky may be right that an importation ban would result in some game farms smuggling in animals. But currently, game farmers can bring in any deer or elk, even those from known CWD-infected areas, so long as they can produce a health certificate showing the animal's been tested. The problem is that no test exists to find CWD in live animals. Animals can carry CWD for years and still look healthy, so some of the 370 elk shipped into Wisconsin between 1996 and 1999 from CWD areas could have the disease. The odds are even higher for animals purchased from farms later found to have CWD.

 

Wisconsin has approximately 100 deer or elk farms and they're big business. On the Internet, prices for elk calves start at $1,500, and breeding bulls go for up to $20,000. Some farms sell venison and the velvet that peels from new elk antlers (considered an aphrodisiac in Asia). Others offer "hunts" costing between $1,000 and $5,000 for trophy deer, to more than $10,000 for bull elk with massive antlers.

 

Given these economics, it's reasonable to question why anyone with a suspicion of CWD in his or her herd would call in state regulators or a vet. A farm with a proven CWD case, confirms Dr. Robert Ehlenfeldt, DATCP's director of Animal Disease Control, would be shut down indefinitely.

 

And if a problem develops on a Wisconsin game farm, there's no guarantee that's where it will stay. Dr. Hurley says even fenced-in animals have easy nose-to-nose contact with wild and other farmed animals. Besides, as the DNR's chief of special operations Thomas Solin has documented, many game farms are not secure. Gates are sometimes left open. Fences rust and break, rot and topple, get crushed by fallen trees. Even if game farm animals don't escape, such breaches allow wild deer to get in, mingle with the farmed deer and elk, then leave.

 

Unlike other diseases, there's no test for CWD in living animals because it doesn't create an immune system counter-response, detectable through blood analysis. You can't kill CWD and related diseases by cooking the meat. One test Stauber recounts in Mad Cow U.S.A. found that scrapie, a sheep form of CWD, stayed viable after a full hour at 680 degrees Fahrenheit. Most disinfectants don't kill these diseases, either, and they can exist in the soil for years.

 

And while diseases like mad cow and mad elk do have some trouble jumping from species to species, it can happen. This May, Byron Caughey of the National Institutes of Health announced that he had converted human brain materials with mad-elk-contaminated brain matter at rates roughly equal to the transfer between mad cow and humans.

 

Says Dr. Pringle, referring to Caughey's work, "CWD may not transmit that easily, but the rate isn't zero." Pringle notes that the test Caughey used has been a very reliable proxy in the past in determining transmission possibilities for other diseases, including mad cow.

 

Once they jump the species barrier, transmissible spongiform encephalopathy diseases adapt to fit the new host and are then passed on rather easily within that species. Unfortunately, says Pringle, no one is trying to determine if CWD has jumped into people as Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease. Making matters more difficult is the fact that the disease can incubate for decades before symptoms are seen.

 

In states with CWD-infected deer, thousands of people have undoubtedly been exposed to CWD-infected venison. A February 1998 Denver Post article tells of one hunter who's venison tested positive for CWD. By the time he was notified, his meat had already been ground up and mixed with meat from hundreds of other deer for venison sausage.

 

With AIDS, Pringle notes, there was a definite overreaction, with people initially afraid to even shake hands with people infected with the virus. Looking at the CWD situation in Colorado, he says there's been complete underreaction. "It's like, oh, what the hell. Nobody's died yet--so keep eating the venison!'" Pringle worries that if the disease is found in humans, it will be so only after years of spreading through the human community.

 

Looking over documents obtained by Isthmus through its open-records request, Stauber says DATCP is behaving more like a lobbyist for the game farm industry than an agency bent on protecting Wisconsin's people from CWD. He points to DATCP's Cervidae Advisory Committee as a prime example. In a Nov. 11, 1998, memo from Siroky to DATCP secretary Ben Brancel, Siroky notes that the committee is needed to "obtain information from the public concerning disease regulation" of farmed deer and elk, and "to help formulate action plans for importation requirements, prevention and control" of CWD. But of the 12 people Siroky nominates, one's a DNR warden, one's a DATCP employee, and the other 10 are game farm owners. And two of these owners were among those DATCP knew had purchased elk from farms at high risk of having CWD.

 

"There's no significant input from anyone else," says Stauber. "Farmers, deer hunters and consumers are all left out. Meanwhile, the government's failing to take all necessary precautions to alert the public to this potential health threat."

 


 

Wisconsin : 436 Deer Have Escaped From Farms to Wild

 

Date: March 18, 2003 Source: Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

 

Contacts: LEE BERGQUIST lbergquist@journalsentinel.com

 

State finds violations, lax record keeping at many sites, report says

 

A state inspection of private deer farms, prompted by the discovery of chronic wasting disease, found that 436 white-tailed deer escaped into the wild, officials said Tuesday

 

The Department of Natural Resources found that captive deer have escaped from one-third of the state's 550 deer farms over the lifetime of the operations. The agency also uncovered hundreds of violations and has sought a total of 60 citations or charges against deer farm operators.

 

snip...

 

CWD found on 2 farms

 

Seven deer have tested positive for the disease on game farms - one on a Portage County farm and six on a Walworth County farm - since the disease was discovered in three wild deer killed near Mount Horeb in western Dane County. One deer that tested positive on the Walworth County farm escaped and roamed free for six months.

 

snip...

 

The audit found that most farms were in compliance, but the DNR found many violations and instances of poor record keeping. Also in numerous instances, fences did not stop wild and captive deer from intermingling.

 

At least 227 farms conducted part of their business on a cash basis, making it hard to track animal movement with financial records.

 

For example, both the Internal Revenue Service and the state Department of Revenue have been contacted about a deer farm near Wild Rose in Waushara County that is suspected of selling six large bucks for $45,000 in cash and not using live deer shipping tags as required.

 

The DNR found that game farm operators have more deer in captivity than their records show, which is "due in part because the owners of a number of large deer farm operations were! unable to accurately count the number of deer within their fences," the audit found.

 

Hundreds of deer escape

 

The DNR found a total of 671 deer that escaped farms - 436 of which were never found - because of storm-damaged fences, gates being left open or the animals jumping over or through fences.

 

In one example in Kewaunee County, a deer farmer's fence was knocked down in a summer storm. Ten deer escaped, and the farmer told the DNR he had no intention of trying to reclaim them. The DNR found five of the deer, killed them and cited the farmer for violation of a regulation related to fencing.

 

Another deer farmer near Mishicot, in Manitowoc County, released all nine of his whitetails last summer after he believed the discovery of chronic wasting disease was going to drive down the market for captive deer.

 

The DNR found 24 instances of unlicensed deer farms and issued 19 citations.

 

Journal Sentinel correspondent Kevin Murphy contributed to this report.

 

Game Farms Inspected

 

A summary of the findings of the Department of Natural Resources' inspection of 550 private white-tailed deer farms in the state: The deer farms contained at least 16,070 deer, but the DNR believes there are more deer in captivity than that because large deer farms are unable to accurately count their deer. 671 deer had escaped from game farms, including 436 that were never found.

 

24 farmers were unlicensed. One had been operating illegally since 1999 after he was denied a license because his deer fence did not meet minimum specifications.

 

Records maintained by operators ranged from "meticulous documentation to relying on memory." At least 227 farms conducted various portions of their deer farm business with cash. Over the last three years, 1,222 deer died on farms for various reasons. Disease testing was not performed nor required on the majority of deer. Farmers reported doing business with people in 22 other states and one Canadian province. Click these links for more information

 


 

Friday, February 03, 2012

 

Wisconsin Farm-Raised Deer Farms and CWD there from 2012 report Singeltary et al

 


 

Wednesday, September 04, 2013

 

***cwd - cervid captive livestock escapes, loose and on the run in the wild...

 


 

Saturday, June 29, 2013

 

PENNSYLVANIA CAPTIVE CWD INDEX HERD MATE YELLOW *47 STILL RUNNING LOOSE IN INDIANA, YELLOW NUMBER 2 STILL MISSING, AND OTHERS ON THE RUN STILL IN LOUISIANA

 


 

Monday, June 24, 2013

 

The Effects of Chronic Wasting Disease on the Pennsylvania Cervid Industry Following its Discovery

 


 

Tuesday, June 11, 2013

 

CWD GONE WILD, More cervid escapees from more shooting pens on the loose in Pennsylvania

 


 

Tuesday, May 28, 2013

 

Chronic Wasting Disease CWD quarantine Louisiana via CWD index herd Pennsylvania Update May 28, 2013

 

6 doe from Pennsylvania CWD index herd still on the loose in Louisiana, quarantine began on October 18, 2012, still ongoing, Lake Charles premises.

 


 

Monday, December 02, 2013

 

WISCONSIN CHRONIC WASTING DISEASE CWD DISCOVERED MARATHON COUNTY HUNTING PRESERVE

 


 

Tuesday, December 17, 2013

 

Wisconsin Second CWD positive deer found in Grant County

 


 

Tuesday, February 25, 2014

 

*** Test results provide current snapshot of CWD in south-central Wisconsin Dane and Eastern Iowa counties Prevalence has increased in all categories

 


 

Thursday, October 03, 2013

 

TAHC ADOPTS CWD RULE THAT the amendments REMOVE the requirement for a specific fence height for captives

 

October 3, 2013

 


 

OLD HISTORY ON CWD AND GAME FARMS IN USA

 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 

 

*** PRICE OF CWD TSE PRION POKER GOES UP 2014 ***

 

Transmissible Spongiform Encephalopathy TSE PRION update January 2, 2014

 

*** chronic wasting disease, there was no absolute barrier to conversion of the human prion protein.

 

*** Furthermore, the form of human PrPres produced in this in vitro assay when seeded with CWD, resembles that found in the most common human prion disease, namely sCJD of the MM1 subtype.

 


 


 

*** 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.

 


 

 

The chances of a person or domestic animal contracting CWD are “extremely remote,” Richards said. The possibility can’t be ruled out, however. “One could look at it like a game of chance,” he explained. “The odds (of infection) increase over time because of repeated exposure. That’s one of the downsides of having CWD in free-ranging herds: We’ve got this infectious agent out there that we can never say never to in terms of (infecting) people and domestic livestock.”

 


 

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.

 


 

2012

 

Envt.06:

 

Zoonotic Potential of CWD: Experimental Transmissions to Non-Human Primates

 

Emmanuel Comoy,1,† Valérie Durand,1 Evelyne Correia,1 Aru Balachandran,2 Jürgen Richt,3 Vincent Beringue,4 Juan-Maria Torres,5 Paul Brown,1 Bob Hills6 and Jean-Philippe Deslys1

 

1Atomic Energy Commission; Fontenay-aux-Roses, France; 2Canadian Food Inspection Agency; Ottawa, ON Canada; 3Kansas State University; Manhattan, KS USA; 4INRA; Jouy-en-Josas, France; 5INIA; Madrid, Spain; 6Health Canada; Ottawa, ON Canada

 

†Presenting author; Email: emmanuel.comoy@cea.fr

 

The constant increase of chronic wasting disease (CWD) incidence in North America raises a question about their zoonotic potential. A recent publication showed their transmissibility to new-world monkeys, but no transmission to old-world monkeys, which are phylogenetically closer to humans, has so far been reported. Moreover, several studies have failed to transmit CWD to transgenic mice overexpressing human PrP. Bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) is the only animal prion disease for which a zoonotic potential has been proven. We described the transmission of the atypical BSE-L strain of BSE to cynomolgus monkeys, suggesting a weak cattle-to-primate species barrier. We observed the same phenomenon with a cattleadapted strain of TME (Transmissible Mink Encephalopathy). Since cattle experimentally exposed to CWD strains have also developed spongiform encephalopathies, we inoculated brain tissue from CWD-infected cattle to three cynomolgus macaques as well as to transgenic mice overexpressing bovine or human PrP. Since CWD prion strains are highly lymphotropic, suggesting an adaptation of these agents after peripheral exposure, a parallel set of four monkeys was inoculated with CWD-infected cervid brains using the oral route. Nearly four years post-exposure, monkeys exposed to CWD-related prion strains remain asymptomatic. In contrast, bovinized and humanized transgenic mice showed signs of infection, suggesting that CWD-related prion strains may be capable of crossing the cattle-to-primate species barrier. Comparisons with transmission results and incubation periods obtained after exposure to other cattle prion strains (c-BSE, BSE-L, BSE-H and cattle-adapted TME) will also be presented, in order to evaluate the respective risks of each strain.

 

Envt.07:

 

Pathological Prion Protein (PrPTSE) in Skeletal Muscles of Farmed and Free Ranging White-Tailed Deer Infected with Chronic Wasting Disease

 

Martin L. Daus,1,† Johanna Breyer,2 Katjs Wagenfuehr,1 Wiebke Wemheuer,2 Achim Thomzig,1 Walter Schulz-Schaeffer2 and Michael Beekes1 1Robert Koch Institut; P24 TSE; Berlin, Germany; 2Department of Neuropathology, Prion and Dementia Research Unit, University Medical Center Göttingen; Göttingen, Germany †Presenting author; Email: dausm@rki.de

 

Chronic wasting disease (CWD) is a contagious, rapidly spreading transmissible spongiform encephalopathy (TSE) occurring in cervids in North America. Despite efficient horizontal transmission of CWD among cervids natural transmission of the disease to other species has not yet been observed. Here, we report a direct biochemical demonstration of pathological prion protein PrPTSE and of PrPTSE-associated seeding activity in skeletal muscles of CWD-infected cervids. The presence of PrPTSE was detected by Western- and postfixed frozen tissue blotting, while the seeding activity of PrPTSE was revealed by protein misfolding cyclic amplification (PMCA). The concentration of PrPTSE in skeletal muscles of CWD-infected WTD was estimated to be approximately 2000- to 10000-fold lower than in brain tissue. Tissue-blot-analyses revealed that PrPTSE was located in muscle- associated nerve fascicles but not, in detectable amounts, in myocytes. The presence and seeding activity of PrPTSE in skeletal muscle from CWD-infected cervids suggests prevention of such tissue in the human diet as a precautionary measure for food safety, pending on further clarification of whether CWD may be transmissible to humans.

 


 

PRION2013 CONGRESSIONAL ABSTRACTS CWD

 

Sunday, August 25, 2013

 

***Chronic Wasting Disease CWD risk factors, humans, domestic cats, blood, and mother to offspring transmission

 


 

Sunday, July 21, 2013

 

*** As Chronic Wasting Disease CWD rises in deer herd, what about risk for humans?

 


 

PRION2013 CONGRESSIONAL ABSTRACTS CWD

 

Sunday, August 25, 2013

 

HD.13: CWD infection in the spleen of humanized transgenic mice

 

Liuting Qing and Qingzhong Kong

 

Case Western Reserve University; Cleveland, OH USA

 

Chronic wasting disease (CWD) is a widespread prion disease in free-ranging and captive cervid species in North America, and there is evidence suggesting the existence of multiple CWD strains. The susceptibility of human CNS and peripheral organs to the various CWD prion strains remains largely unclear. Current literature suggests that the classical CWD strain is unlikely to infect human brain, but the potential for peripheral infection by CWD in humans is unknown. We detected protease-resistant PrpSc in the spleens of a few humanized transgenic mice that were intracerebrally inoculated with natural CWD isolates, but PrpSc was not detected in the brains of any of the CWD-inoculated mice. Our ongoing bioassays in humanized Tg mice indicate that intracerebral challenge with such PrpSc-positive humanized mouse spleen already led to prion disease in most animals.

 

***These results indicate that the CWD prion may have the potential to infect human peripheral lymphoid tissues.

 

Oral.15: Molecular barriers to zoonotic prion transmission: Comparison of the ability of sheep, cattle and deer prion disease isolates to convert normal human prion protein to its pathological isoform in a cell-free system

 

Marcelo A.Barria,1 Aru Balachandran,2 Masanori Morita,3 Tetsuyuki Kitamoto,4 Rona Barron,5 Jean Manson,5 Richard Kniqht,1 James W. lronside1 and Mark W. Head1

 

1National CJD Research and Surveillance Unit; Centre for Clinical Brain Sciences; School of Clinical Sciences; The University of Edinburgh; Edinburgh, UK; 2National and OIE Reference Laboratory for Scrapie and CWD; Canadian Food Inspection Agency; Ottawa Laboratory; Fallowfield. ON Canada; 3Infectious Pathogen Research Section; Central Research Laboratory; Japan Blood Products Organization; Kobe, Japan; 4Department of Neurological Science; Tohoku University Graduate School of Medicine; Sendai. Japan; 5Neurobiology Division; The Roslin Institute and R(D)SVS; University of Edinburgh; Easter Bush; Midlothian; Edinburgh, UK

 

Background. Bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) is a known zoonotic prion disease, resulting in variant Creurzfeldt- Jakob disease (vCJD) in humans. In contrast, classical scrapie in sheep is thought to offer little or no danger to human health. However, a widening range of prion diseases have been recognized in cattle, sheep and deer. The risks posed by individual animal prion diseases to human health cannot be determined a priori and are difficult to assess empirically. The fundamemal event in prion disease pathogenesis is thought to be the seeded conversion of normal prion protein (PrPC) to its pathological isoform (PrPSc). Here we report the use of a rapid molecular conversion assay to test whether brain specimens from different animal prion diseases are capable of seeding the conversion of human PrPC ro PrPSc.

 

Material and Methods. Classical BSE (C-type BSE), H-type BSE, L-type BSE, classical scrapie, atypical scrapie, chronic wasting disease and vCJD brain homogenates were tested for their ability to seed conversion of human PrPC to PrPSc in protein misfolding cyclic amplification (PMCA) reactions. Newly formed human PrPSc was detected by protease digestion and western blotting using the antibody 3F4.

 

Results. C-type BSE and vCJD were found to efficiently convert PrPC to PrPSc. Scrapie failed to convert human PrPC to PrPSc. Of the other animal prion diseases tested only chronic wasting disease appeared to have the capability ro convert human PrPC to PrPSc. The results were consistent whether the human PrPC came from human brain, humanised transgenic mouse brain or from cultured human cells and the effect was more pronounced for PrPC with methionine at codon 129 compared with that with valine.

 

Conclusion. Our results show that none of the tested animal prion disease isolates are as efficient as C-type BSE and vCJD in converting human prion protein in this in vitro assay.

 

***However, they also show that there is no absolute barrier ro conversion of human prion protein in the case of chronic wasting disease.

 

PRION2013 CONGRESSIONAL ABSTRACTS CWD

 

Sunday, August 25, 2013

 

***Chronic Wasting Disease CWD risk factors, humans, domestic cats, blood, and mother to offspring transmission

 


 

 

TSS

posted by Terry S. Singeltary Sr. at 11:26 AM

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