Wednesday, December 10, 2014

Burlington Vermont Man Charged With Importing Deer from CWD Area from a New York captive hunt facility

 
Sent: Monday, December 08, 2014 12:34 PM
Subject: Burlington Vermont Man Charged With Importing Deer from CWD Area from a New York captive hunt facility
 

Greetings Vermont et al,
 
I would like to kindly enlighten you a bit on the Transmissible Spongiform Encephalopathy TSE prion disease aka mad cow type disease...as follows...kindest regards, terry
 
IN REPLY TO :
 
News Releases
 
12-8-2014 Burlington Man Charged With Importing Deer from CWD Area
 
VERMONT FISH & WILDLIFE
 
Press Release
 
For Immediate Release: December 8, 2014
 
Media Contacts: Warden Robert Currier, 802-497-2126; Maj. Dennis Reinhardt, 802-828-1529;
 
Wildlife Biologist Adam Murkowski, 802-786-3860
 
Burlington Man Charged With Importing Deer from CWD Area
 
BURLINGTON, Vt. – The Vermont Fish & Wildlife Department says a multi-year investigation has led to the arrest by game wardens of a Burlington man for importing deer from a chronic wasting disease (CWD) endemic area. Wardens executed a search warrant on December 2, 2014 at the residence of Alan Baker in Burlington for evidence of the importation of deer from a New York captive hunt facility. Wardens obtained evidence of four deer being imported from the Lowlands Whitetails Hunting Ranch in Lowville, NY.
 
Evidence obtained through the search warrant as well as information provided by Environmental Police Officers of the New York Department of Environmental Conservation and the New York State Police proved that Baker has imported deer from this facility in 2012, 2013 and 2014. Baker also allegedly attempted to report the deer as being killed in Vermont.
 
Baker has been charged with three counts of importing deer from a Chronic Wasting Disease endemic area and captive hunt facility.
 
Each charge carries a maximum fine of $1,000 with five points charged against the offender’s privilege to hunt, fish and trap. Baker will lose his hunting, fishing and trapping privileges for two years upon conviction and has been cited to appear in Chittenden County Superior Court on February 10, 2015.
 
CWD is a fatal disease of the brain and nervous system in deer and elk. Abnormal prion proteins produce lesions in the brain that cause disorientation and emaciation. For the latest information on CWD, check www.cwd-info.org and www.vtfishandwildlife.com.
 
A Vermont regulation requires special processing of deer or elk carcasses being imported from states or provinces that have, or have had, CWD. The disease has been found in more than 20 states and two Canadian provinces, including New York. Vermont's CWD regulation applies to hunters bringing in deer or elk carcasses from the following states and provinces:
 
Alberta, Colorado, Illinois, Iowa, Kansas, Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, New Mexico, New York, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, Saskatchewan, South Dakota, Texas, Utah, Virginia, West Virginia, Wisconsin, Wyoming.
 
-30-
 
 
Mike Donoghue, Free Press Staff Writer 12:58 p.m. EST December 8, 2014
 
A retired Burlington Police corporal is facing Vermont charges of illegal importation of deer from a chronic wasting disease endemic area in New York, the Vermont Fish and Wildlife Department said Monday. Game wardens raided the home of Alan Baker, 70, on James Avenue last week and seized evidence of four deer that were imported from the Lowlands Whitetails Hunting Ranch in Lowville, N.Y., officials said
 
Baker also attempted to report the deer as being killed in Vermont, Game Warden Robert Currier said.
 
He said Baker has been ordered to appear in Vermont Superior Court on Feb. 10 to face three counts of importing deer from a Chronic Wasting Disease endemic area and captive hunt facility.
 
Evidence obtained through the search warrant as well as information provided by Environmental Police Officers of the New York Department of Environmental Conservation and the New York State Police proved that Baker has imported deer from this facility in 2012, 2013 and 2014, Currier said.
 
For each offense, if convicted, Baker could be fined up to $1,000 with five points charged against his privilege to hunt, fish and trap.
 
He also could lose his hunting, fishing and trapping privileges for two years upon conviction, officials said.
 
CWD is a fatal disease of the brain and nervous system in deer and elk. Abnormal prion proteins produce lesions in the brain that cause disorientation and emaciation.
 
A Vermont regulation requires special processing of deer or elk carcasses being imported from states or provinces that have, or have had, CWD, the Vermont Fish and Wildlife Department said.
 
The disease has been found in more than 20 states and two Canadian provinces, including New York.
 
Contact Mike Donoghue at 660-1845 or mdonoghue@freepressmedia.com Follow Mike on Twitter at www.twitter.com/FreepsMikeD.
 
 
>>> A retired Burlington Police corporal is facing Vermont charges of illegal importation of deer from a chronic wasting disease endemic area in New York, the Vermont Fish and Wildlife Department said Monday. <<<
 
I kindly submit the following science, please use as you wish...
 
 
PENS, pens, pens, Scrapie vs CWD, is there a difference ??? please see the science.
 
cwd to humans ? please see the science. ...
 
kind regards, terry
 
From: Terry S. Singeltary Sr. Sent: Monday, November 03, 2014 11:11 AM To: BSE-L@LISTS.AEGEE.ORG Subject: [BSE-L] Persistence of ovine scrapie infectivity in a farm environment following cleaning and decontamination
 
Paper
 
Persistence of ovine scrapie infectivity in a farm environment following cleaning and decontamination
 
Steve A. C. Hawkins, MIBiol, Pathology Department1, Hugh A. Simmons, BVSc MRCVS, MBA, MA Animal Services Unit1, Kevin C. Gough, BSc, PhD2 and Ben C. Maddison, BSc, PhD3 + Author Affiliations
 
1Animal and Plant Health Agency, Woodham Lane, New Haw, Addlestone, Surrey KT15 3NB, UK 2School of Veterinary Medicine and Science, The University of Nottingham, Sutton Bonington, Loughborough, Leicestershire LE12 5RD, UK 3ADAS UK, School of Veterinary Medicine and Science, The University of Nottingham, Sutton Bonington, Loughborough, Leicestershire LE12 5RD, UK E-mail for correspondence: ben.maddison@adas.co.uk Abstract Scrapie of sheep/goats and chronic wasting disease of deer/elk are contagious prion diseases where environmental reservoirs are directly implicated in the transmission of disease. In this study, the effectiveness of recommended scrapie farm decontamination regimens was evaluated by a sheep bioassay using buildings naturally contaminated with scrapie. Pens within a farm building were treated with either 20,000 parts per million free chorine solution for one hour or were treated with the same but were followed by painting and full re-galvanisation or replacement of metalwork within the pen. Scrapie susceptible lambs of the PRNP genotype VRQ/VRQ were reared within these pens and their scrapie status was monitored by recto-anal mucosa-associated lymphoid tissue. All animals became infected over an 18-month period, even in the pen that had been subject to the most stringent decontamination process.
 
*** These data suggest that recommended current guidelines for the decontamination of farm buildings following outbreaks of scrapie do little to reduce the titre of infectious scrapie material and that environmental recontamination could also be an issue associated with these premises.
 
SNIP...
 
Discussion
 
Thorough pressure washing of a pen had no effect on the amount of bioavailable scrapie infectivity (pen B). The routine removal of prions from surfaces within a laboratory setting is treatment for a minimum of one hour with 20,000 ppm free chlorine, a method originally based on the use of brain macerates from infected rodents to evaluate the effectiveness of decontamination (Kimberlin and others 1983). Further studies have also investigated the effectiveness of hypochlorite disinfection of metal surfaces to simulate the decontamination of surgical devices within a hospital setting. Such treatments with hypochlorite solution were able to reduce infectivity by 5.5 logs to lower than the sensitivity of the bioassay used (Lemmer and others 2004). Analogous treatment of the pen surfaces did not effectively remove the levels of scrapie infectivity over that of the control pens, indicating that this method of decontamination is not effective within a farm setting. This may be due to the high level of biological matrix that is present upon surfaces within the farm environment, which may reduce the amount of free chlorine available to inactivate any infectious prion. Remarkably 1/5 sheep introduced into pen D had also became scrapie positive within nine months, with all animals in this pen being RAMALT positive by 18 months of age. Pen D was no further away from the control pen (pen A) than any of the other pens within this barn. Localised hot spots of infectivity may be present within scrapie-contaminated environments, but it is unlikely that pen D area had an amount of scrapie contamination that was significantly different than the other areas within this building. Similarly, there were no differences in how the biosecurity of pen D was maintained, or how this pen was ventilated compared with the other pens. This observation, perhaps, indicates the slower kinetics of disease uptake within this pen and is consistent with a more thorough prion removal and recontamination. These observations may also account for the presence of inadvertent scrapie cases within other studies, where despite stringent biosecurity, control animals have become scrapie positive during challenge studies using barns that also housed scrapie-affected animals (Ryder and others 2009). The bioassay data indicate that the exposure of the sheep to a farm environment after decontamination efforts thought to be effective in removing scrapie is sufficient for the animals to become infected with scrapie. The main exposure routes within this scenario are likely to be via the oral route, during feeding and drinking, and respiratory and conjunctival routes. It has been demonstrated that scrapie infectivity can be efficiently transmitted via the nasal route in sheep (Hamir and others 2008), as is the case for CWD in both murine models and in white-tailed deer (Denkers and others 2010, 2013). Recently, it has also been demonstrated that CWD prions presented as dust when bound to the soil mineral montmorillonite can be infectious via the nasal route (Nichols and others 2013). When considering pens C and D, the actual source of the infectious agent in the pens is not known, it is possible that biologically relevant levels of prion survive on surfaces during the decontamination regimen (pen C). With the use of galvanising and painting (pen D) covering and sealing the surface of the pen, it is possible that scrapie material recontaminated the pens by the movement of infectious prions contained within dusts originating from other parts of the barn that were not decontaminated or from other areas of the farm.
 
***Given that scrapie prions are widespread on the surfaces of affected farms (Maddison and others 2010a), irrespective of the source of the infectious prions in the pens, this study clearly highlights the difficulties that are faced with the effective removal of environmentally associated scrapie infectivity. This is likely to be paralleled in CWD which shows strong similarities to scrapie in terms of both the dissemination of prions into the environment and the facile mode of disease transmission. These data further contribute to the understanding that prion diseases can be highly transmissible between susceptible individuals not just by direct contact but through highly stable environmental reservoirs that are refractory to decontamination.
 
***The presence of these environmentally associated prions in farm buildings make the control of these diseases a considerable challenge, especially in animal species such as goats where there is lack of genetic resistance to scrapie and, therefore, no scope to re-stock farms with animals that are resistant to scrapie.
 
Scrapie Sheep Goats Transmissible spongiform encephalopathies (TSE) Accepted October 12, 2014. Published Online First 31 October 2014
 
 
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
 
snip...
 
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
 
snip...
 
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.
 
 
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.
 
his 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
 
snip...
 
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 ;
 
 
SEE MORE USAHA REPORTS HERE, 2012 NOT PUBLISHED YET...TSS
 
 
 
 
*** 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.
 
 
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. Acknowledgments. Supported by NIH grant RO1-NS-061902 and grant D12ZO-045 from the Morris Animal Foundation.
 
 
*** 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.
 
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.
 
see full text and more ;
 
Monday, June 23, 2014
 
*** PRION 2014 CONFERENCE CHRONIC WASTING DISEASE CWD
 
 
 
*** Infectious agent of sheep scrapie may persist in the environment for at least 16 years***
 
Gudmundur Georgsson1, Sigurdur Sigurdarson2 and Paul Brown3
 
 
New studies on the heat resistance of hamster-adapted scrapie agent: Threshold survival after ashing at 600°C suggests an inorganic template of replication
 
 
Prion Infected Meat-and-Bone Meal Is Still Infectious after Biodiesel Production
 
 
Detection of protease-resistant cervid prion protein in water from a CWD-endemic area
 
 
A Quantitative Assessment of the Amount of Prion Diverted to Category 1 Materials and Wastewater During Processing
 
 
Rapid assessment of bovine spongiform encephalopathy prion inactivation by heat treatment in yellow grease produced in the industrial manufacturing process of meat and bone meals
 
 
Sunday, November 3, 2013
 
*** Environmental Impact Statements; Availability, etc.: Animal Carcass Management [Docket No. APHIS-2013-0044]
 
 
Friday, October 17, 2014
 
Missouri Final action on Orders of Rule making Breeders and Big Game Hunting Preserves
 
 
Saturday, October 18, 2014
 
Chronic wasting disease threatens Canadian agriculture, Alberta MLA says
 
 
Thursday, October 23, 2014
 
*** FIRST CASE OF CHRONIC WASTING DISEASE CONFIRMED IN OHIO ON PRIVATE PRESERVE
 
 
Tuesday, October 21, 2014
 
*** Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture Tenth Pennsylvania Captive Deer Tests Positive for Chronic Wasting Disease CWD TSE PRION DISEASE
 
 
Tuesday, October 07, 2014
 
*** Wisconsin white-tailed deer tested positive for CWD on a Richland County breeding farm, and a case of CWD has been discovered on a Marathon County hunting preserve
 
 
Thursday, October 02, 2014
 
*** IOWA TEST RESULTS FROM CAPTIVE DEER HERD WITH CHRONIC WASTING DISEASE RELEASED 79.8 percent of the deer tested positive for the disease
 
 
Thursday, July 03, 2014
 
*** How Chronic Wasting Disease is affecting deer population and what’s the risk to humans and pets?
 
 
Tuesday, July 01, 2014
 
*** CHRONIC WASTING DISEASE CWD TSE PRION DISEASE, GAME FARMS, AND POTENTIAL RISK FACTORS THERE FROM
 
 
Saturday, October 25, 2014
 
118th USAHA Annual Meeting CWD and Captive Cerivds
 
 
IN THE UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT FOR THE NORTHERN DISTRICT OF INDIANA SOUTH BEND DIVISION UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, vs. RUSSELL G. BELLAR, Defendant.
 
___________________________
 
)))))))))
 
Cause No.: 3:04cr00068-AS South Bend, Indiana January 4, 2005 9:30 a.m.
 
TRANSCRIPT EXCERPT OF JURY TRIAL (TESTIMONY OF: RONNIE DUNN AND RUSTY CAMP) BEFORE THE HONORABLE ALLEN SHARP
 
snip...
 
Ronnie Dunn Cross Examination
 
Q. Mr. Dunn, at one point I believe you told the federal agents that Mr. Bellar told you that this was a private deer farm and shooting deer on that farm was like slaughtering cattle; is that correct?
 
A. I don't know if I used the word "slaughter," but it was, yeah, like that.
 
Q. You don't know if that was your word, "slaughtering cattle"?
 
A. I don't know that.
 
Q. Well, did he give you the idea of killing cattle?
 
A. Yes, it was the same principle.
 
snip...
 
see full text ;
 
 
 
 
BUCK FEVER
 
 
*** 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.
 
 
These data suggest that recommended current guidelines for the decontamination of farm buildings following outbreaks of scrapie do little to reduce the titre of infectious scrapie material and that environmental recontamination could also be an issue associated with these premises.
 
Scrapie Sheep Goats Transmissible spongiform encephalopathies (TSE) Accepted October 12, 2014. Published Online First 31 October 2014
 
 
Monday, November 3, 2014
 
Persistence of ovine scrapie infectivity in a farm environment following cleaning and decontamination
 
 
*** 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.
 
 
cwd exposure, and iatrogenic CJD, what if ???
 
*** our results raise the possibility that CJD cases classified as VV1 may include cases caused by iatrogenic transmission of sCJD-MM1 prions or food-borne infection by type 1 prions from animals, e.g., chronic wasting disease prions in cervid. In fact, two CJD-VV1 patients who hunted deer or consumed venison have been reported (40, 41). The results of the present study emphasize the need for traceback studies and careful re-examination of the biochemical properties of sCJD-VV1 prions. ***
 
 
snip...see full text ;
 
 
Thursday, January 2, 2014
 
*** CWD TSE Prion in cervids to hTGmice, Heidenhain Variant Creutzfeldt-Jacob Disease MM1 genotype, and iatrogenic CJD ??? ***
 
 
*** 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.
 
 
Tuesday, November 04, 2014
 
*** Six-year follow-up of a point-source exposure to CWD contaminated venison in an Upstate New York community: risk behaviours and health outcomes 2005–2011
 
 
Tuesday, November 04, 2014
 
Towards an Age-Dependent Transmission Model of Acquired and Sporadic Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease
 
 
Friday, December 5, 2014
 
*** SPECIAL ALERT The OIE recommends strengthening animal disease surveillance worldwide
 
*** OIE BSE TSE PRION AKA MAD COW DISEASE ?
 
‘’the silence was deafening’’ ...tss
 
 
Wednesday, December 3, 2014
 
Over 200 Groups Urge Congress to Continue Supporting COOL
 
For Immediate Release
 
 
Tuesday, December 2, 2014
 
UK EXPORTS OF MBM TO WORLD Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy BSE TSE Prion aka Mad Cow Disease
 
USA, NORTH AMERICA, MBM (or any potential TSE prion disease) EXPORTS TO THE WORLD (?) [protected by the BSE MRR policy] $$$
 
 
Monday, December 1, 2014
 
Germany Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy BSE CJD TSE Prion disease A Review December 1, 2014
 
 
Friday, November 28, 2014
 
BOVINE SPONGIFORM ENCEPHALOPATHY BSE AKA MAD COW DISEASE PORTUGAL CONFIRMED
 
 
Sunday, October 5, 2014
 
France stops BSE testing for Mad Cow Disease
 
 
Monday, May 5, 2014
 
Brazil BSE Mad Cow disease confirmed OIE 02/05/2014
 
 
*** OIE GROUP RECOMMENDS THAT SCRAPE PRION DISEASE BE DELISTED, WISHES TO CONTINUE SPREADING IT AROUND THE GLOBE
 
 
Monday, November 30, 2009
 
*** USDA AND OIE COLLABORATE TO EXCLUDE ATYPICAL SCRAPIE NOR-98 ANIMAL HEALTH CODE, DOES NOT SURPRISE ME $
 
 
why do we not want to do TSE transmission studies on chimpanzees $
 
5. A positive result from a chimpanzee challenged severly would likely create alarm in some circles even if the result could not be interpreted for man. I have a view that all these agents could be transmitted provided a large enough dose by appropriate routes was given and the animals kept long enough. Until the mechanisms of the species barrier are more clearly understood it might be best to retain that hypothesis.
 
snip...
 
R. BRADLEY
 
 
1: J Infect Dis 1980 Aug;142(2):205-8
 
Oral transmission of kuru, Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, and scrapie to nonhuman primates.
 
Gibbs CJ Jr, Amyx HL, Bacote A, Masters CL, Gajdusek DC.
 
Kuru and Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease of humans and scrapie disease of sheep and goats were transmitted to squirrel monkeys (Saimiri sciureus) that were exposed to the infectious agents only by their nonforced consumption of known infectious tissues. The asymptomatic incubation period in the one monkey exposed to the virus of kuru was 36 months; that in the two monkeys exposed to the virus of Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease was 23 and 27 months, respectively; and that in the two monkeys exposed to the virus of scrapie was 25 and 32 months, respectively. Careful physical examination of the buccal cavities of all of the monkeys failed to reveal signs or oral lesions. One additional monkey similarly exposed to kuru has remained asymptomatic during the 39 months that it has been under observation.
 
snip...
 
The successful transmission of kuru, Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, and scrapie by natural feeding to squirrel monkeys that we have reported provides further grounds for concern that scrapie-infected meat may occasionally give rise in humans to Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease.
 
PMID: 6997404
 
 
Recently the question has again been brought up as to whether scrapie is transmissible to man. This has followed reports that the disease has been transmitted to primates. One particularly lurid speculation (Gajdusek 1977) conjectures that the agents of scrapie, kuru, Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease and transmissible encephalopathy of mink are varieties of a single "virus". The U.S. Department of Agriculture concluded that it could "no longer justify or permit scrapie-blood line and scrapie-exposed sheep and goats to be processed for human or animal food at slaughter or rendering plants" (ARC 84/77)" The problem is emphasised by the finding that some strains of scrapie produce lesions identical to the once which characterise the human dementias"
 
Whether true or not. the hypothesis that these agents might be transmissible to man raises two considerations. First, the safety of laboratory personnel requires prompt attention. Second, action such as the "scorched meat" policy of USDA makes the solution of the acrapie problem urgent if the sheep industry is not to suffer grievously.
 
snip...
 
76/10.12/4.6
 
 
Nature. 1972 Mar 10;236(5341):73-4.
 
Transmission of scrapie to the cynomolgus monkey (Macaca fascicularis).
 
Gibbs CJ Jr, Gajdusek DC.
 
Nature 236, 73 - 74 (10 March 1972); doi:10.1038/236073a0
 
Transmission of Scrapie to the Cynomolgus Monkey (Macaca fascicularis)
 
C. J. GIBBS jun. & D. C. GAJDUSEK
 
National Institute of Neurological Diseases and Stroke, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, Maryland
 
SCRAPIE has been transmitted to the cynomolgus, or crab-eating, monkey (Macaca fascicularis) with an incubation period of more than 5 yr from the time of intracerebral inoculation of scrapie-infected mouse brain. The animal developed a chronic central nervous system degeneration, with ataxia, tremor and myoclonus with associated severe scrapie-like pathology of intensive astroglial hypertrophy and proliferation, neuronal vacuolation and status spongiosus of grey matter. The strain of scrapie virus used was the eighth passage in Swiss mice (NIH) of a Compton strain of scrapie obtained as ninth intracerebral passage of the agent in goat brain, from Dr R. L. Chandler (ARC, Compton, Berkshire).
 
 
 
Wednesday, February 16, 2011
 
IN CONFIDENCE
 
SCRAPIE TRANSMISSION TO CHIMPANZEES
 
IN CONFIDENCE
 
 
Sunday, December 12, 2010
 
EFSA reviews BSE/TSE infectivity in small ruminant tissues News Story 2 December 2010
 
 
Sunday, April 18, 2010
 
SCRAPIE AND ATYPICAL SCRAPIE TRANSMISSION STUDIES A REVIEW 2010
 
 
Thursday, December 23, 2010
 
Molecular Typing of Protease-Resistant Prion Protein in Transmissible Spongiform Encephalopathies of Small Ruminants, France, 2002-2009
 
Volume 17, Number 1 January 2011
 
 
Thursday, November 18, 2010
 
Increased susceptibility of human-PrP transgenic mice to bovine spongiform encephalopathy following passage in sheep
 
 
Monday, April 25, 2011
 
Experimental Oral Transmission of Atypical Scrapie to Sheep
 
Volume 17, Number 5-May 2011
 
 
Friday, February 11, 2011
 
Atypical/Nor98 Scrapie Infectivity in Sheep Peripheral Tissues
 
 
Thursday, March 29, 2012
 
atypical Nor-98 Scrapie has spread from coast to coast in the USA 2012
 
NIAA Annual Conference April 11-14, 2011San Antonio, Texas
 
 
*** Canada Increased Atypical Scrapie Detections
 
Press reports indicate that increased surveillance is catching what otherwise would have been unreported findings of atypical scrapie in sheep. In 2009, five new cases have been reported in Quebec, Ontario, Alberta, and Saskatchewan. With the exception of Quebec, all cases have been diagnosed as being the atypical form found in older animals. Canada encourages producers to join its voluntary surveillance program in order to gain scrapie-free status. The World Animal Health will not classify Canada as scrapie-free until no new cases are reported for seven years. The Canadian Sheep Federation is calling on the government to fund a wider surveillance program in order to establish the level of prevalence prior to setting an eradication date. Besides long-term testing, industry is calling for a compensation program for farmers who report unusual deaths in their flocks.
 
 
Sporadic CJD type 1 and atypical/ Nor98 scrapie are characterized by fine (reticular) deposits, see also ; All of the Heidenhain variants were of the methionine/ methionine type 1 molecular subtype.
 
 
Tuesday, July 29, 2008
 
Heidenhain Variant Creutzfeldt Jakob Disease Case Report
 
snip...
 
Heidenhain Variant Creutzfeldt Jakob Disease autopsy case report 'MOM' DIVISION OF NEUROPATHOLOGY University of Texas Medical Branch 114 McCullough Bldg. Galveston, Texas 77555-0785 FAX COVER SHEET DATE: 4-23-98 TO: Mr. Terry Singeltary @ ------- FROM: Gerald Campbell FAX: (409) 772-5315 PHONE: (409) 772-2881 Number of Pages (including cover sheet): Message: *CONFIDENTIALITY NOTICE* This document accompanying this transmission contains confidential information belonging to the sender that is legally privileged. This information is intended only for the use of the individual or entry names above. If you are not the intended recipient, you are hereby notified that any disclosure, copying distribution, or the taking of any action in reliances on the contents of this telefaxed information is strictly prohibited. If you received this telefax in error, please notify us by telephone immediately to arrange for return of the original documents. -------------------------- Patient Account: 90000014-518 Med. Rec. No.: (0160)118511Q Patient Name: POULTER, BARBARA Age: 63 YRS DOB: 10/17/34 Sex: F Admitting Race: C Attending Dr.: Date / Time Admitted : 12/14/97 1228 Copies to: UTMB University of Texas Medical Branch Galveston, Texas 77555-0543 (409) 772-1238 Fax (409) 772-5683 Pathology Report FINAL AUTOPSY DIAGNOSIS Autopsy' Office (409)772-2858 Autopsy NO.: AU-97-00435 AUTOPSY INFORMATION: Occupation: Unknown Birthplace: Unknown Residence: Crystal Beach Date/Time of Death: 12/14/97 13:30 Date/Time of Autopsy: 12/15/97 15:00 Pathologist/Resident: Pencil/Fernandez Service: Private Restriction: Brain only
 
FINAL AUTOPSY DIAGNOSIS
 
I. Brain: Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, Heidenhain variant.
 
snip...see full text ;
 
 
P.5.21 Parallels between different forms of sheep scrapie and types of Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (CJD)
 
Wiebke M. Wemheuer1, Sylvie L. Benestad2, Arne Wrede1, Wilhelm E. Wemheuer3, Tatjana Pfander1, Bjørn Bratberg2, Bertram Brenig3,Walter J. Schulz-Schaeffer1 1University Medical Center Goettingen, Germany; 2Institute of Veterinary Medicine Oslo, Norway; 3Institute of Veterinary Medicine Goettingen, Germany
 
Background: Scrapie in sheep and goats is often regarded as the archetype of prion diseases. In 1998, a new form of scrapie - atypical/Nor98 scrapie - was described that differed from classical scrapie in terms of epidemiology, Western blot profile, the distribution of pathological prion protein (PrPSc) in the body and its stability against proteinase K. In a similar way, distinct disease types exist in sporadic Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (CJD). They differ with regard to their clinical outcome, Western blot profile and PrPSc deposition pattern in the central nervous system (CNS). Objectives: The comparison of PrPSc deposits in sheep scrapie and human sporadic CJD.
 
Methods: Tissues of the CNS of sheep with classical scrapie, sheep with atypical/Nor98 scrapie and 20 patients with sporadic CJD were examined using the sensitive Paraffin Embedded Tissue (PET) blot method. The results were compared with those obtained by immunohistochemistry. With the objective of gaining information on the protein conformation, the PrPSc of classical and atypical/Nor98 sheep scrapie and sporadic CJD was tested for its stability against denaturation with guanidine hydrochloride (GdnHCl) using a Membrane Adsorption Assay.
 
Results: The PrPSc of atypical/Nor98 scrapie cases and of CJD prion type 1 patients exhibits a mainly reticular/synaptic deposition pattern in the brain and is relatively sensitive to denaturation with GdnHCl. In contrast classical scrapie cases and CJD prion type 2 patients have a more complex PrPSc deposition pattern in common that consists of larger PrPSc aggregates and the PrPSc itself is comparatively stable against denaturation.
 
Discussion: The similarity between CJD types and scrapie types indicates that at least two comparable forms of the misfolded prion protein exist beyond species barriers and can elicit prion diseases. It seems therefore reasonable to classify classical and atypical/Nor98 scrapie - in analogy to the existing CJD types - as different scrapie types.
 
 
What if you can catch old-fashioned CJD by eating meat from a sheep infected with scrapie?
 
28 Mar 01
 
Like lambs to the slaughter 31 March 2001 by Debora MacKenzie Magazine issue 2284. Subscribe and get 4 free issues. FOUR years ago, Terry Singeltary watched his mother die horribly from a degenerative brain disease. Doctors told him it was Alzheimer's, but Singeltary was suspicious. The diagnosis didn't fit her violent symptoms, and he demanded an autopsy. It showed she had died of sporadic Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease.
 
Most doctors believe that sCJD is caused by a prion protein deforming by chance into a killer. But Singeltary thinks otherwise. He is one of a number of campaigners who say that some sCJD, like the variant CJD related to BSE, is caused by eating meat from infected animals. Their suspicions have focused on sheep carrying scrapie, a BSE-like disease that is widespread in flocks across Europe and North America.
 
Now scientists in France have stumbled across new evidence that adds weight to the campaigners' fears. To their complete surprise, the researchers found that one strain of scrapie causes the same brain damage in mice as sCJD.
 
"This means we cannot rule out that at least some sCJD may be caused by some strains of scrapie," says team member Jean-Philippe Deslys of the French Atomic Energy Commission's medical research laboratory in Fontenay-aux-Roses, south-west of Paris. Hans Kretschmar of the University of Göttingen, who coordinates CJD surveillance in Germany, is so concerned by the findings that he now wants to trawl back through past sCJD cases to see if any might have been caused by eating infected mutton or lamb.
 
Scrapie has been around for centuries and until now there has been no evidence that it poses a risk to human health. But if the French finding means that scrapie can cause sCJD in people, countries around the world may have overlooked a CJD crisis to rival that caused by BSE.
 
Deslys and colleagues were originally studying vCJD, not sCJD. They injected the brains of macaque monkeys with brain from BSE cattle, and from French and British vCJD patients. The brain damage and clinical symptoms in the monkeys were the same for all three. Mice injected with the original sets of brain tissue or with infected monkey brain also developed the same symptoms.
 
As a control experiment, the team also injected mice with brain tissue from people and animals with other prion diseases: a French case of sCJD; a French patient who caught sCJD from human-derived growth hormone; sheep with a French strain of scrapie; and mice carrying a prion derived from an American scrapie strain. As expected, they all affected the brain in a different way from BSE and vCJD. But while the American strain of scrapie caused different damage from sCJD, the French strain produced exactly the same pathology.
 
"The main evidence that scrapie does not affect humans has been epidemiology," says Moira Bruce of the neuropathogenesis unit of the Institute for Animal Health in Edinburgh, who was a member of the same team as Deslys. "You see about the same incidence of the disease everywhere, whether or not there are many sheep, and in countries such as New Zealand with no scrapie." In the only previous comparisons of sCJD and scrapie in mice, Bruce found they were dissimilar.
 
But there are more than 20 strains of scrapie, and six of sCJD. "You would not necessarily see a relationship between the two with epidemiology if only some strains affect only some people," says Deslys. Bruce is cautious about the mouse results, but agrees they require further investigation. Other trials of scrapie and sCJD in mice, she says, are in progress.
 
People can have three different genetic variations of the human prion protein, and each type of protein can fold up two different ways. Kretschmar has found that these six combinations correspond to six clinical types of sCJD: each type of normal prion produces a particular pathology when it spontaneously deforms to produce sCJD.
 
But if these proteins deform because of infection with a disease-causing prion, the relationship between pathology and prion type should be different, as it is in vCJD. "If we look at brain samples from sporadic CJD cases and find some that do not fit the pattern," says Kretschmar, "that could mean they were caused by infection."
 
There are 250 deaths per year from sCJD in the US, and a similar incidence elsewhere. Singeltary and other US activists think that some of these people died after eating contaminated meat or "nutritional" pills containing dried animal brain. Governments will have a hard time facing activists like Singeltary if it turns out that some sCJD isn't as spontaneous as doctors have insisted.
 
Deslys's work on macaques also provides further proof that the human disease vCJD is caused by BSE. And the experiments showed that vCJD is much more virulent to primates than BSE, even when injected into the bloodstream rather than the brain. This, says Deslys, means that there is an even bigger risk than we thought that vCJD can be passed from one patient to another through contaminated blood transfusions and surgical instruments.
 
 
Monday, December 1, 2008
 
When Atypical Scrapie cross species barriers
 
 
lost my mom to hvCJD ‘confirmed’ December 14, 1997, just made a promise, never forget, and never let them forget...
 
MOM
 
Sunday, November 23, 2014
 
*** Confirmed Variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease (variant CJD) Case in Texas in June 2014 confirmed as USA case NOT European
 
‘’The specific overseas country where this patient’s infection occurred is less clear largely because the investigation did not definitely link him to a country where other known vCJD cases likely had been infected.’’
 
 
‘’IN STRICT CONFIDENCE’’
 
Self-Propagative Replication of Ab Oligomers Suggests Potential Transmissibility in Alzheimer Disease
 
Received July 24, 2014; Accepted September 16, 2014; Published November 3, 2014
 
 
Singeltary comment ;
 
 
Sunday, December 7, 2014
 
Scientific update on the potential for transmissibility of non-prion protein misfolding diseases PRIONOIDS
 
 
 
Terry S. Singeltary Sr.

posted by Terry S. Singeltary Sr. at 12:52 PM

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