http://www.nwhc.usgs.gov/disease_information/chronic_wasting_disease/ The latest news about Chronic Wasting Disease and Prions. en-us 720 Copyright National Wildlife Health Center Thu, 23 May 2013 16:25:43 -0500 karen_cunningham@usgs.gov tbeighley@usgs.gov http://www.pricecountydaily.com/news/regional/article_20a6409c-ebab-11e1-b847-0019bb2963f4.html SPOONER, WI Two Department of Natural Resources wildlife biologists and a Chronic Wasting Disease expert will take part in an informational CWD public meeting at Spooner High School tonight, Tuesday Aug. 21.The public meeting is being co-sponsored by the Shell Lake CWD Citizen Advisory Committee, who is bringing in guest speaker, Bryan Richards, CWD project leader for the U.S. Geological Survey's National Wildlife Health Center in Madison. Tue, 21 Aug 2012 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.nwhc.usgs.gov/disease_information/chronic_wasting_disease/index.jsp#47 http://www.gosanangelo.com/news/2012/jul/11/impact-on-texas-hunting-season/ SAN ANGELO, Texas The Texas Parks & Wildlife Department has known for months that some mule deer in the Hueco Mountains region of New Mexico were confirmed to have chronic wasting disease.However, when department officials received a call in February telling them that mule deer close to the Texas border had been confirmed with CWD, state biologists quickly sprang into action."Within two weeks we had harvested and tested 31 mule deer. After lengthy and intensive testing, we learned last week that two of them taken from the Hueco Mountains of northern El Paso and Hudspeth counties tested positive for the disease," said Clayton Wolf, Wildlife Division director for the TPWD.The annual mule deer harvest in Texas represents 3 percent of deer taken annually, but the real concern among many is that CWD can be passed to the Texas whitetail population. Deer hunting in Texas is a $2.2 billion per year industry."We don't want to be alarmist over the situation, but when mule deer and whitetail interact, the disease can be spread," Wolf said. "The population of both mule deer and whitetail in the Trans-Pecos is small compared to other regions of Texas, but we will be expanding our sampling to include whitetails in Far West Texas.""Incubation of CWD may take from two to five years to show up, so we are challenged to keep up with the testing process," Wolf said.Gary Joiner, CEO of the Texas Wildlife Association, declined to speculate as to what damage CWD could do to the Texas whitetail population and hunting revenue.He said: "Our efforts are focused on containment of the situation we have in West Texas. We have the proper steps and people in place to deal with it."There is no cure of CWD in animals, and it's always fatal and may linger in deer for years.The TPWD declined to reveal the exact location of the mule deer that tested positive.Wolf and Steve Sturtz, Tom Green County agricultural and natural resources extension agent for Texas AgriLife Extension in San Angelo, said there is no indication the disease can be transferred to humans or livestock."Containment of the disease is now the objective," said Carter Smith, TPWD executive director. In addition to white-tailed deer, CWD can be passed to red deer, sika and free-ranging elk.As part of the containment program, game wardens, Texas DPS officers and other state agencies near the affected areas will be on the lookout for fresh road-killed mule deer to be tested. More field tests also will be conducted.Steve Lightfoot, spokesman for the TPWD, said deer hunters can expect to see mandatory mule deer check stations during the upcoming 2012 Texas mule deer season."The exact locations and numbers of stations have not been established. The Texas Wildlife Commission is due to meet in August, and specific instructions will come after that session," Lightfoot said.TPWD Commission Chairman T. Dan Franklin said: "We take the presence of this disease very seriously and have a plan to deal with it. The department will do whatever is prudent and reasonable to protect the state's deer resources and our hunting heritage."Bryan Richards, disease investigator for the U.S. Geological Survey National Health Center in Madison, Wis., says Texas is the 20th state with a detected case of CWD.Texas has the largest national deer population, around 5 million animals. An estimated 565,000 deer are harvested annually in Texas; less than 5 percent of them are mule deer.The Texas Wildlife Association, which represents more than 6,000 members including deer breeders, booking agents, landowners and hunters praised the TPWD's swift action in dealing with the CWD findings. TWA represents owners of more than 40 million acres in Texas."The Texas Wildlife Association is confident in the containment strategy and response of state wildlife and animal health authorities in the wake of the July 10 announcement that samples from two mule deer have been confirmed as positive for CWD," said association President Glen Webb, of Abilene.Greg Simons, booking agent and owner of Wildlife Systems in San Angelo, is a TWA board member. Wed, 11 Jul 2012 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.nwhc.usgs.gov/disease_information/chronic_wasting_disease/index.jsp#45 http://host.madison.com/sports/recreation/outdoors/article_d979135a-56f2-11e0-9da3-001cc4c03286.html Wisconsin used $465,000 from its cherished Stewardship Fund this past week to buy an 80-acre farm that will remain closed to the public indefinitely because it once housed North America's worst case of chronic wasting disease. Mon, 28 Mar 2011 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.nwhc.usgs.gov/disease_information/chronic_wasting_disease/index.jsp#44 http://www.google.com/url?sa=X&q=http://postbulletin.com/news/stories/display.php%3Fid%3D1447750&ct=ga&cad=CAcQARgAIAEoATAAOABAgO-F7ARIAVgAYgJlbg&cd=kx2qRPHf3bo&usg=AFQjCNEh51C9V-NVG9jNHsUruR_TcJQH3g When Minnesota joined the growing number of states with chronic wasting disease detected in wild deer, the Department of Natural Resources said that the ideal situation would be to follow the path taken in New York.The nightmare scenario would be to replicate what happened in Wisconsin, Colorado and Wyoming.Five years ago in New York, two captive deer and two wild deer were found with CWD, said Bryan Richards, a U.S. Geological Service CWD team leader at the National Wildlife Health Center in Madison, Wis. New York aggressively culled the herd in the infected area, and so far, no more deer have been found with the disease. Sat, 12 Mar 2011 00:00:00 -0600 http://www.nwhc.usgs.gov/disease_information/chronic_wasting_disease/index.jsp#43 http://www.rrstar.com/carousel/x449517376/Hunters-DNR-should-rethink-strategy-to-deal-with-deer-disease Tim Brugger longs for the days when white-tailed deer were a common sight on his four-acre, wooded property in South Beloit.When we moved in here, it was nothing to see 14 or 15 deer at a time, Brugger, 49, said.Five years later he rarely sees one.Brugger and other hunters put the blame on the state Department of Natural Resources. Deer herds have been reduced in northern Illinois as part of the DNR strategy to combat chronic wasting disease, an incurable deer disorder believed to be passed by deer-to-deer contact. Sat, 19 Feb 2011 00:00:00 -0600 http://www.nwhc.usgs.gov/disease_information/chronic_wasting_disease/index.jsp#41 http://www.dnr.state.md.us/dnrnews/pressrelease2011/021011a.asp The Maryland Department of Natural Resources (DNR) received laboratory confirmation on February 10, 2011 that a white-tailed deer harvested in Maryland tested positive for chronic wasting disease (CWD). This is the first confirmed case of CWD in Maryland. A hunter in Allegany County reported taking the deer on November 27, 2010 in Green Ridge State Forest. Maryland joins 20 other states and Canadian provinces with CWD documented in deer, elk or moose. Mon, 14 Feb 2011 00:00:00 -0600 http://www.nwhc.usgs.gov/disease_information/chronic_wasting_disease/index.jsp#40 http://www.dnr.state.mn.us/mammals/deer/cwd/index.html The National Veterinary Services Laboratory in Ames, Iowa, has confirmed that a deer harvested by a hunter in November 2010 near Pine Island in southeastern Minnesota had Chronic Wasting Disease (CWD), which is fatal to deer, elk and moose but not known to affect humans or cattle. The diagnosis, which was confirmed Jan. 25, marks the first time CWD has been found in Minnesota's wild deer herd. Thu, 27 Jan 2011 00:00:00 -0600 http://www.nwhc.usgs.gov/disease_information/chronic_wasting_disease/index.jsp#39 http://www.jsonline.com/blogs/sports/107518698.html A white-tailed deer from a shooting preserve in northern Wisconsin has tested positive on a screening test for chronic wasting disease, according to the Wisconsin Department of Agriculture, Trade and Consumer Protection."We've had the initial positive but we are waiting for confirmation from another lab," said Lee Sensenbrenner, DATCP spokesman. "We want to make sure it's not a false positive before making any formal announcements." Fri, 12 Nov 2010 00:00:00 -0600 http://www.nwhc.usgs.gov/disease_information/chronic_wasting_disease/index.jsp#38 http://www.sltrib.com/news/ci_14649997 The first case of chronic wasting disease (CWD) in an Utah elk has been confirmed by state wildlife officials.Lymph nodes from 1,400 animals -- the bulk of them mule deer and elk, but also some moose -- were collected last fall during the hunting seasons.Results from Utah State University were returned to Division of Wildlife Resources (DWR) officials recently. Five of the mule deer samples came back as positive for CWD, a fatal and transmissible neurological disease. Thu, 11 Mar 2010 00:00:00 -0600 http://www.nwhc.usgs.gov/disease_information/chronic_wasting_disease/index.jsp#36 http://www.nadefa.org/news/cwd-confirmed-south-transcanada Following the 2009 hunting season, the province of Saskatchewan received 3,200 deer heads to sample for chronic wasting disease. Testing, not quite complete, has shown 38 new positive cases within Saskatchewan in 2009. Thu, 04 Feb 2010 00:00:00 -0600 http://www.nwhc.usgs.gov/disease_information/chronic_wasting_disease/index.jsp#35 http://wvmetronews.com/sixteen-new-cwd-cases-found-in-hampshire-county/ The slow growth and spread of chronic wasting disease continues in West Virginia. DNR Biologists report 16 deer killed by hunters in the 2009 deer season tested positive for the presence of CWD. The DNR pulled those positives from 1,091 deer killed by hunters in Hampshire at local checking stations during the season. Sat, 16 Jan 2010 00:00:00 -0600 http://www.nwhc.usgs.gov/disease_information/chronic_wasting_disease/index.jsp#34 http://jvi.asm.org/cgi/content/abstract/84/1/210?maxtoshow=&HITS=10&hits=10&RESULTFORMAT=&fulltext=cwd&searchid=1&FIRSTINDEX=0&volume=84&issue=1&resourcetype=HWCIT Chronic wasting disease (CWD) is a highly contagious always fatal neurodegenerative disease that is currently known to naturally infect only species of the deer family, Cervidae. CWD epidemics are occurring in free-ranging cervids at several locations in North America, and other wildlife species are certainly being exposed to infectious material. To assess the potential for transmission, we intracerebrally inoculated four species of epidemic-sympatric rodents with CWD. Transmission was efficient in all species; the onset of disease was faster in the two vole species than the two Peromyscus spp. The results for inocula prepared from CWD-positive deer with or without CWD-resistant genotypes were similar. Survival times were substantially shortened upon second passage, demonstrating adaptation. Unlike all other known prion protein sequences for cricetid rodents that possess asparagine at position 170, our red-backed voles expressed serine and refute previous suggestions that a serine in this position substantially reduces susceptibility to CWD. Given the scavenging habits of these rodent species, the apparent persistence of CWD prions in the environment, and the inevitable exposure of these rodents to CWD prions, our intracerebral challenge results indicate that further investigation of the possibility of natural transmission is warranted. Fri, 15 Jan 2010 00:00:00 -0600 http://www.nwhc.usgs.gov/disease_information/chronic_wasting_disease/index.jsp#33 http://www.greenbaypressgazette.com/article/20091105/GPG0702/911050600/1233/GPG02 Although Wisconsin is home to North America's worst outbreak of chronic wasting disease in white-tailed deer, and although its prevalence has steadily worsened since its discovery in February 2002, our lawmakers, DNR brass and many hunters just keep smiling as sand fills the hole where they've stuck their heads. Talk about the power of faith-based beliefs. How can anyone look at 2008 data from our own laboratories and think CWD is stalling or disappearing? Those numbers show record-high CWD prevalence for the 210-square-mile core area west of Madison.For bucks 2.5 years and older, last year's infection rate exceeded 15 percent after hovering around 10 percent since 2002. Other 2008 infection rates follow:1.5-year-old bucks: 6 percent, after sitting at 3 percent since 2002.1.5-year-old females: 5.25 percent, up from 3.25 percent in 2007, which is five straight years the disease increased in this group.2.5-year-old does: 6.5 percent, up from 5 percent in 2006 and 2007.In addition, when Wisconsin's Inter-Agency CWD Health and Science team met July 28 and reviewed research by the National Wildlife Health Center, they learned CWD is most likely to take hold in high-density herds. Such herds remain common in the southern two-thirds of Wisconsin. Thu, 05 Nov 2009 00:00:00 -0600 http://www.nwhc.usgs.gov/disease_information/chronic_wasting_disease/index.jsp#32 http://wvgazette.com/Outdoors/200905070568 Biologists say a recent jump in chronic wasting disease rates among Wisconsin deer might spell trouble for deer in West Virginia's Hampshire County. Thu, 07 May 2009 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.nwhc.usgs.gov/disease_information/chronic_wasting_disease/index.jsp#31 http://www.allvoices.com/news/2993824/s/31449507-cwd-forces-more-than-100-elk-into-quarantine Bemidji Pioneer - Bemidji,MN,USA According to the United States Geologic Survey?s ?National Wildlife Health Center? Web page, salmonella infection can occur in all species of birds. ... http://www.thestarphoenix.com/news/forces+more+than+into+quarantine/1503789/story.html The second case this year of Chronic Wasting Disease in Saskatchewan has put an elk herd of more than 100 in quarantine.The Canadian Food Inspection Agency confirmed that a single elk suffered from the incurable disease, and then penned the entire herd, said CFIA animal health program manager Connie Argue. Thu, 16 Apr 2009 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.nwhc.usgs.gov/disease_information/chronic_wasting_disease/index.jsp#29 http://www.news.wisc.edu/16144 In addition to being perhaps the weirdest infectious agent know to science, the prion is also the most durable. It resists almost every method of destruction from fire and ionizing radiation to chemical disinfectants and autoclaving, which reduce prion infectivity but fail to completely eliminate it. Now, however, a team of Wisconsin researchers has found that a common soil mineral, an oxidized from of manganese known as birnessite, can penetrate the prion's armor and degrade the protein. Wed, 14 Jan 2009 00:00:00 -0600 http://www.nwhc.usgs.gov/disease_information/chronic_wasting_disease/index.jsp#27 http://www.jsonline.com/news/wisconsin/36473349.html Buck at Jefferson County preserve had chronic wasting disease By Lee Bergquist of the Journal Sentinel Posted: Dec. 19, 2008A 7-year-old buck from a Jefferson County hunting preserve has tested positive for chronic wasting disease, state agriculture officials reported Friday. The white-tailed deer was killed Dec. 1 as part of an effort by the owner of the 53-acre preserve to cull his herd and repopulate it with new stock, said Donna Gilson, a spokeswoman for the Department of Agriculture, Trade and Consumer Protection. Two deer remain on the preserve and will be killed. They have been quarantined by State Veterinarian Robert Ehlenfeldt. Gilson said the agriculture department will trace any possible movement of deer from the preserve to other captive facilities. The hunting preserve, Maple Hill Whitetails, is owned by Steve Hookstead of Helenville. According to the preserve's Web site, the business offers hunts, and breeding and genetics services. Hookstead was unavailable for comment.Hookstead's breeding herd will not be killed because the deer are separated from the hunting preserve by a fence, Gilson said. Chronic wasting disease was discovered in wild deer in Wisconsin in 2002. Since then, 98 deer and one elk have tested positive from nine captive facilities. More than 22,500 farm-raised deer and elk have been tested.Chronic wasting disease is always fatal and affects deer, elk and moose. The disease is a transmissible spongiform encephalopathy, a class of diseases that includes mad cow disease in cattle, scrapie in sheep and Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease in humans. According to the World Health Organization, any tissue that may have come from deer with CWD should not be eaten, but there is no evidence the disease can be transmitted to humans. Fri, 19 Dec 2008 00:00:00 -0600 http://www.nwhc.usgs.gov/disease_information/chronic_wasting_disease/index.jsp#26 http://www.publicbroadcasting.net/wpr/news.newsmain?action=article&ARTICLE_ID=1421385 WYOMING (2008-11-21) Peter O'Dowd reports on the efforts in Wyoming and around the country to manage Chronic Wasting Disease. Fri, 21 Nov 2008 00:00:00 -0600 http://www.nwhc.usgs.gov/disease_information/chronic_wasting_disease/index.jsp#25 http://www.jsonline.com/news/wisconsin/34129689.html In its first long-term analysis of how to manage chronic wasting disease in Wisconsin, the Department of Natural Resources acknowledged this week that the fatal deer disease can't be eliminated in some parts of the state. Fri, 07 Nov 2008 00:00:00 -0600 http://www.nwhc.usgs.gov/disease_information/chronic_wasting_disease/index.jsp#24 http://www.burlingtonfreepress.com/article/20081102/NEWS02/811020312/1007 The bloom came off New York's rose in 2005, when chronic wasting disease -- a fatal, contagious neurological disease of deer and elk that is similar to mad cow disease -- was discovered in two captive deer herds in Oneida County in the center of the state.Vermonters cannot bring home a deer carcass from neighboring towns in New York, yet a moratorium on importing captive deer and elk in Vermont was allowed to expire last year. This despite the fact that transporting captive deer and elk has a long track record of spreading CWD, and there is no fool-proof way to determine if even an ostensibly healthy deer has the disease Sun, 02 Nov 2008 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.nwhc.usgs.gov/disease_information/chronic_wasting_disease/index.jsp#23