Sunday, June 29, 2014

Chronic wasting disease spreads in West Virginia

Sunday, June 29, 2014

Chronic wasting disease spreads in W.Va.

By John McCoy, Staff writer JOHN McCOY | Sunday Gazette-Mail

Since chronic wasting disease was found in a single Hampshire County deer in 2006,the disease has spread steadily to encompass roughly 108 square miles of Hampshire and Hardy counties.

Sunday Gazette-Mail

Since chronic wasting disease was found in a single Hampshire County deer in 2006, the disease has spread steadily to encompass roughly 108 square miles of Hampshire and Hardy counties.

The numbers are in, and to deer hunters they’re discouraging.

They show that chronic wasting disease is spreading inside West Virginia, and it’s infecting more deer in areas where it occurs. Jim Crum, deer project leader for the state Division of Natural Resources, called statistics from the agency’s latest CWD sampling effort “unsettling.”

“Of the 591 tissue samples we extracted from hunter-killed deer last fall in Hampshire County, 29 were positive for CWD,” Crum said. “That’s the highest number of positives we’ve ever had. The year before, by way of comparison, we took 672 samples and got 16 positives.”

The disease, which kills deer in much the same way mad cow disease kills cattle, was first discovered in the Mountain State near Slanesville, Hampshire County, in 2006. DNR officials immediately set up a “CWD containment zone” in an effort to keep the always-fatal malady from spreading.

They encouraged hunters to kill more deer by setting up a special antlerless-deer hunt within the county. They imposed restrictions on transporting deer carcasses outside the containment zone. They took tissue samples from hunter-killed deer at 11 game-checking stations within Hampshire County. They had agency sharpshooters kill additional deer each spring to help monitor the disease’s prevalence.

Despite their efforts, CWD continued to spread slowly but steadily.

Based on samples taken within a designated 39-square-mile area within the containment zone in central Hampshire County, the prevalence of infected deer has increased from 7 percent to almost 25 percent. Crum said he doesn’t know how high the percentage might eventually go.

“It probably won’t go to 100 percent,” he said. “The highest known prevalence ever reported was about 50 percent, so we’ll probably top out short of that.”

Equally disturbing to DNR officials has been the disease’s geographic spread. In 2006, all the CWD-positive samples were contained within a 15-square-mile area. Since then, the infected area has expanded to 108 square miles and has crossed the line into neighboring Hardy County.

Crum said the expansion has been steady.

“In 2006, the area was 15 square miles; in 2007, it was 25; in 2008, it was 32; in 2009, it was 49; in 2010, it was 61; in 2011, it was 73; in 2012, it was 85; and last year it was 108,” he said. “If you graph that out, it’s a pretty neat line.”

Following that trend, the infected area should increase by approximately 13 square miles a year, a rate that could encompass all of Hampshire County within 40 years.

The worry is that deer from the containment area — especially young, footloose bucks — might wander far enough outside the zone to expand it rapidly. CWD-infected whitetails have been found in parts of Maryland, Virginia and Pennsylvania not far from Hampshire County’s borders.

Crum said the current CWD-positive count for neighboring states’ wild-deer population stands at seven for Virginia, five for Pennsylvania and two for Maryland.

CWD was originally endemic only to states west of the Mississippi River, but leapfrogged its way fairly quickly to Midwestern, Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern states. Because several states’ “first cases” were found near captive deer facilities, wildlife disease experts suspect that deer farmers’ tendency to swap animals across state lines helped spread the disease more rapidly than it otherwise might have.

Crum, himself a Ph.D. in wildlife diseases, said biologists in nearby states are now fully alert to the disease’s potential for spread.

“When we first found CWD here, a few of us biologists from West Virginia, Virginia and Maryland started meeting informally to keep abreast of what was going on,” he said. “At our last meeting, which took place just recently, there were close to 40 people, including folks from Ohio, New York, Delaware and New Jersey.”

Crum said biologists doubt that CWD can be limited to existing areas, mainly because the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s effort to monitor the disease among captive herds “is broke.”

“They have a list, but not all the animals known to be infected are on the list, and [deer farmers and breeders] are transporting animals all over the place,” he said. “Right now, I’m not optimistic we can keep the disease from spreading.”



In West Virginia, CWD has been found in 162 white-tailed deer. Testing of road-kill deer in all WV counties has been continuous since 2002. The WVDNR, Wildlife Resources Section, in cooperation with the SE Cooperative Wildlife Disease Study at the University of Georgia and the Minnesota Veterinary Diagnostic Laboratory, has tested more than 15,023 deer from West Virginia for CWD and as of June 2014, the 159 Hampshire County deer and three Hardy County deer are the only animals found thus far to have the abnormal prion associated with CWD.

 


 

Friday, March 07, 2014

 

37th Annual Southeast Deer Study Group Meeting in Athens, Georgia (CWD TSE Prion abstracts)

 


 

Friday, February 28, 2014

 

West Virginia Deer farming bill passes in House unanimously

 

see case incident of cwd in West Virginia

 


 

In West Virginia, CWD has been found in 133 white-tailed deer. Testing of road-kill deer in all WV counties has been continuous since 2002. The WVDNR, Wildlife Resources Section, in cooperation with the SE Cooperative Wildlife Disease Study at the University of Georgia and the Minnesota Veterinary Diagnostic Laboratory, has tested over 14,432 deer from West Virginia for CWD and as of June 2013, the 131 Hampshire County deer and two Hardy County deer are the only animals found thus far to have the abnormal prion associated with CWD.

 


 

***We hypothesize that both BSE prions and CWD prions passaged through felines will seed human recPrP more efficiently than BSE or CWD from the original hosts, evidence that the new host will dampen the species barrier between humans and BSE or CWD. The new host effect is particularly relevant as we investigate potential means of trans-species transmission of prion disease....

 

P.28: Modeling prion species barriers and the new host effect using RT-QuIC

 

Kristen A Davenport, Davin M Henderson, Candace K Mathiason, and Edward A Hoover Prion Research Center; Colorado State University; Fort Collins, CO USA

 

The propensity for trans-species prion transmission is related to the structural characteristics of the enciphering and heterologous PrP, but the exact mechanism remains mostly mysterious. Studies of the effects of primary or tertiary prion protein www.landesbioscience.com Prion 37 structures on trans-species prion transmission have relied upon animal bioassays, making the influence of prion protein structure vs. host co-factors (e.g. cellular constituents, trafficking, and innate immune interactions) difficult to dissect. As an alternative strategy, we are using real-time quaking-induced conversion (RT-QuIC) to investigate the propensity for and the kinetics of trans-species prion conversion. RT-QuIC has the advantage of providing more defined conditions of seeded conversion to study the specific role of native PrP:PrPRES interactions as a component of the species barrier.

 

We are comparing chronic wasting disease (CWD) and bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) prions by seeding each prion into its native host recPrP (full-length bovine recPrP, or white tail deer recPrP) vs. into the heterologous species. Upon establishing the characteristics of intra-species and inter-species prion seeding for CWD and BSE prions, we will evaluate the seeding kinetics and cross-species seeding efficiencies of BSE and CWD passaged into a common new host—feline—shown to be a permissive host for both CWD and BSE.

 

We hypothesize that both BSE prions and CWD prions passaged through felines will seed human recPrP more efficiently than BSE or CWD from the original hosts, evidence that the new host will dampen the species barrier between humans and BSE or CWD. The new host effect is particularly relevant as we investigate potential means of trans-species transmission of prion disease.

 


 

Monday, June 23, 2014

 

PRION 2014 CONFERENCE

 

CHRONIC WASTING DISEASE CWD

 

A FEW FINDINGS ;

 

Conclusions. To our knowledge, this is the first established experimental model of CWD in TgSB3985. We found evidence for co-existence or divergence of two CWD strains adapted to Tga20 mice and their replication in TgSB3985 mice. Finally, we observed phenotypic differences between cervid-derived CWD and CWD/Tg20 strains upon propagation in TgSB3985 mice. Further studies are underway to characterize these strains.

 

We conclude that TSE infectivity is likely to survive burial for long time periods with minimal loss of infectivity and limited movement from the original burial site. However PMCA results have shown that there is the potential for rainwater to elute TSE related material from soil which could lead to the contamination of a wider area. These experiments reinforce the importance of risk assessment when disposing of TSE risk materials.

 

The results show that even highly diluted PrPSc can bind efficiently to polypropylene, stainless steel, glass, wood and stone and propagate the conversion of normal prion protein. For in vivo experiments, hamsters were ic injected with implants incubated in 1% 263K-infected brain homogenate. Hamsters, inoculated with 263K-contaminated implants of all groups, developed typical signs of prion disease, whereas control animals inoculated with non-contaminated materials did not.

 

Our data establish that meadow voles are permissive to CWD via peripheral exposure route, suggesting they could serve as an environmental reservoir for CWD. Additionally, our data are consistent with the hypothesis that at least two strains of CWD circulate in naturally-infected cervid populations and provide evidence that meadow voles are a useful tool for CWD strain typing.

 

Conclusion. CWD prions are shed in saliva and urine of infected deer as early as 3 months post infection and throughout the subsequent >1.5 year course of infection. In current work we are examining the relationship of prionemia to excretion and the impact of excreted prion binding to surfaces and particulates in the environment.

 

Conclusion. CWD prions (as inferred by prion seeding activity by RT-QuIC) are shed in urine of infected deer as early as 6 months post inoculation and throughout the subsequent disease course. Further studies are in progress refining the real-time urinary prion assay sensitivity and we are examining more closely the excretion time frame, magnitude, and sample variables in relationship to inoculation route and prionemia in naturally and experimentally CWD-infected cervids.

 

Conclusions. Our results suggested that the odds of infection for CWD is likely controlled by areas that congregate deer thus increasing direct transmission (deer-to-deer interactions) or indirect transmission (deer-to-environment) by sharing or depositing infectious prion proteins in these preferred habitats. Epidemiology of CWD in the eastern U.S. is likely controlled by separate factors than found in the Midwestern and endemic areas for CWD and can assist in performing more efficient surveillance efforts for the region.

 

Conclusions. During the pre-symptomatic stage of CWD infection and throughout the course of disease deer may be shedding multiple LD50 doses per day in their saliva. CWD prion shedding through saliva and excreta may account for the unprecedented spread of this prion disease in nature.

 

Monday, June 23, 2014

 

*** PRION 2014 CONFERENCE CHRONIC WASTING DISEASE CWD ***

 


 

Monday, June 23, 2014

 

*** PRION 2014 CONFERENCE TYPICAL AND ATYPICAL BSE AND CJD REPORT UPDATES ***

 


 

Sunday, June 22, 2014

 

Governor Nixon Missouri Urged to VETO Legislation turning over captive shooting pens to USDA

 

snip...

 

PLEASE WATCH THIS VIDEO OF A CAPTIVE SHOOTING PEN HUNT.

 

THIS IS NOT HUNTING FOLKS, THIS IS JUST SLAUGHTERING A DEFENSELESS ANIMAL, AND HAVING TO PROP IT UP TO DO THAT $$$

 

Michigan 2005 237 captive shooting pens not in compliance

 

March 2005 DNR Audit

 

37 % or 237 captive pens not in compliance.

 

96% that died were not tested for CWD, as was required.

 

700 captive pens had inadequate fencing.

 

tranquilizing target deer...

 

Measuring antlers to verify scores for record book.

 

Scooping up with front in loading tractor, and dumping into small 3 to 5 acre pen to be shot for up to $20,000.00

 

how did the fix the problem, turned the DNR over to the USDA et al, problem solved...

 

‘’The rich...who are content to buy what they have not the skill to get by their own exertions, these are the real enemies of game’’

 

Theodore Roosevelt’s Principles of the Hunt

 


 

snip...see full text ;

 

Sunday, June 22, 2014

 

Governor Nixon Missouri Urged to VETO Legislation turning over captive shooting pens to USDA

 


 

 

Thursday, June 26, 2014


CWD NO ACCIDENT

 


 

 

CWD NO ACCIDENT VIDEO

 


 

 

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.

 

snip...

 

What does this all mean?

 

My initial reaction, which is one that I predicted when Kroll was named to the state’s deer trustee position, is that his team’s final recommendations — if implemented — will be heavily skewed toward the state’s larger landowners (500+ acres) and folks who own small parcels in areas comprised mostly of private land. It is also my prediction that the final recommendations (again, if implemented) will do little, if anything, to improve deer herds and deer hunting on Wisconsin’s 5.7 million acres of public land. Where does this leave the public-land hunter? “It will suck to be you,” said one deer manager who asked to remain anonymous out of fear for his job. “The resources and efforts will go toward improving the private land sector. This is all about turning deer hunting away from the Public Land Doctrine and more toward a European-style of management — like they have in Texas.”

 


 

Friday, June 01, 2012

 

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

 


 

Monday, February 11, 2013

 

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

 


 

spreading cwd around...tss

 

Between 1996 and 2002, chronic wasting disease was diagnosed in 39 herds of farmed elk in Saskatchewan in a single epidemic. All of these herds were depopulated as part of the Canadian Food Inspection Agency’s (CFIA) disease eradication program. Animals, primarily over 12 mo of age, were tested for the presence CWD prions following euthanasia. Twenty-one of the herds were linked through movements of live animals with latent CWD from a single infected source herd in Saskatchewan, 17 through movements of animals from 7 of the secondarily infected herds.

 

***The source herd is believed to have become infected via importation of animals from a game farm in South Dakota where CWD was subsequently diagnosed (7,4). A wide range in herd prevalence of CWD at the time of herd depopulation of these herds was observed. Within-herd transmission was observed on some farms, while the disease remained confined to the introduced animals on other farms.

 


 

spreading cwd around...tss

 

Friday, May 13, 2011

 

Chronic Wasting Disease (CWD) outbreaks and surveillance program in the Republic of Korea Chronic Wasting Disease (CWD) outbreaks and surveillance program in the Republic of Korea

 

Hyun-Joo Sohn, Yoon-Hee Lee, Min-jeong Kim, Eun-Im Yun, Hyo-Jin Kim, Won-Yong Lee, Dong-Seob Tark, In- Soo Cho, Foreign Animal Disease Research Division, National Veterinary Research and Quarantine Service, Republic of Korea

 

Chronic wasting disease (CWD) has been recognized as an important prion disease in native North America deer and Rocky mountain elks. The disease is a unique member of the transmissible spongiform encephalopathies (TSEs), which naturally affects only a few species. CWD had been limited to USA and Canada until 2000.

 

On 28 December 2000, information from the Canadian government showed that a total of 95 elk had been exported from farms with CWD to Korea. These consisted of 23 elk in 1994 originating from the so-called “source farm” in Canada, and 72 elk in 1997, which had been held in pre export quarantine at the “source farm”.Based on export information of CWD suspected elk from Canada to Korea, CWD surveillance program was initiated by the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry (MAF) in 2001.

 

All elks imported in 1997 were traced back, however elks imported in 1994 were impossible to identify. CWD control measures included stamping out of all animals in the affected farm, and thorough cleaning and disinfection of the premises. In addition, nationwide clinical surveillance of Korean native cervids, and improved measures to ensure reporting of CWD suspect cases were implemented.

 

Total of 9 elks were found to be affected. CWD was designated as a notifiable disease under the Act for Prevention of Livestock Epidemics in 2002.

 

Additional CWD cases - 12 elks and 2 elks - were diagnosed in 2004 and 2005.

 

Since February of 2005, when slaughtered elks were found to be positive, all slaughtered cervid for human consumption at abattoirs were designated as target of the CWD surveillance program. Currently, CWD laboratory testing is only conducted by National Reference Laboratory on CWD, which is the Foreign Animal Disease Division (FADD) of National Veterinary Research and Quarantine Service (NVRQS).

 

In July 2010, one out of 3 elks from Farm 1 which were slaughtered for the human consumption was confirmed as positive. Consequently, all cervid – 54 elks, 41 Sika deer and 5 Albino deer – were culled and one elk was found to be positive. Epidemiological investigations were conducted by Veterinary Epidemiology Division (VED) of NVRQS in collaboration with provincial veterinary services.

 

Epidemiologically related farms were found as 3 farms and all cervid at these farms were culled and subjected to CWD diagnosis. Three elks and 5 crossbreeds (Red deer and Sika deer) were confirmed as positive at farm 2.

 

All cervids at Farm 3 and Farm 4 – 15 elks and 47 elks – were culled and confirmed as negative.

 

Further epidemiological investigations showed that these CWD outbreaks were linked to the importation of elks from Canada in 1994 based on circumstantial evidences.

 

In December 2010, one elk was confirmed as positive at Farm 5. Consequently, all cervid – 3 elks, 11 Manchurian Sika deer and 20 Sika deer – were culled and one Manchurian Sika deer and seven Sika deer were found to be positive. This is the first report of CWD in these sub-species of deer. Epidemiological investigations found that the owner of the Farm 2 in CWD outbreaks in July 2010 had co-owned the Farm 5.

 

In addition, it was newly revealed that one positive elk was introduced from Farm 6 of Jinju-si Gyeongsang Namdo. All cervid – 19 elks, 15 crossbreed (species unknown) and 64 Sika deer – of Farm 6 were culled, but all confirmed as negative.

 

: Corresponding author: Dr. Hyun-Joo Sohn (+82-31-467-1867, E-mail: shonhj@korea.kr) 2011 Pre-congress Workshop: TSEs in animals and their environment 5

 


 


 


 

Friday, May 13, 2011

 

Chronic Wasting Disease (CWD) outbreaks and surveillance program in the Republic of Korea

 


 

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 ???

 

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:

 


 


 

Friday, May 30, 2014

 

Wisconsin Waushara County hunting preserve ordered to pay civil forfeiture in CWD case

 


 

Friday, April 04, 2014

 

Wisconsin State officials kept silent on CWD discovery at game farm

 


 

Tuesday, February 11, 2014 *** Wisconsin tracks 81 deer from game farm with CWD buck to seven other states

 


 

Friday, May 30, 2014

 

Wisconsin Waushara County hunting preserve ordered to pay civil forfeiture in CWD case

 


 

TSS

posted by Terry S. Singeltary Sr. at 9:37 AM

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