Deer/Moose neuro-wasting disease

[ScratchCinders]

It's like mad cow but for deer. Any hunters here have any insider information on it? I don't plan on going hunting any time soon, but I am concerned about possible transmission to humans through contact with saliva or waste-products. I read some articles months ago and I think it's unclear whether it can transmit, so I'm looking maybe for stories from hunters on this forum. Just want to know whether I should be careful when camping in the rockies.

 

[DrHenley]

If you are talking about CWD (Chronic Wasting Disease), currently there are no known cases of natural transmission to anything else besides cervids (members of the deer family), but it's always possible for it to mutate in the future.

As a precaution, the CDC recommends not eating the brain, spinal cord, eyes, spleen, tonsils, or lymph nodes of any cervids in affected areas, and avoiding contact with them as well when cleaning the animals. You will not get the disease from simply visiting the affected areas.

The most likely means of transmission in the wild is from eating infected grass in affected areas.

 

[ScratchCinders]

Yes, CWD. And thank God. That’s good news to me.

 

[Kevin L]

This wasting disease is--evidentally--a prion disease.

Prion diseases are fundamentally different from diseases caused by bacteria, viruses, fungi, and protozoa.

Prions will not usually be killed by cooking or boiling. Prions have survived on surgical instruments that have been autoclaved.

Prion diseases that infect humans are Varient Crutzfeld-Jacob disease ("Mad Cow"), Kuru (an extinct disease that was spread in Papua New Guinea by the cannibalistic practice of eating human brain tissue), and Fatal Familial Insomnia (which comes from genetic--rather than infectious--causes, and is exceedingly rare).

I'm sure that there are others that I'm not aware of.

The problem with prion diseases is that they are all 100% fatal, the prions can persist in the environment and--possibly--taken up by food plants, and the disease process is almost always a slow, protracted, nasty death.....that takes months or years.

I would be concerned if I was brain-tanning a hide, and had open cuts on my hands, and if I was in the habit of touching my mouth and face during the process.

The one positive thing is that human prion diseases are exceedingly rare. So, I'd be aware of them and the possibility and exercise reasonable caution, but I wouldn't be paranoid or walk around in fear.

Also, most of these diseases take many years after exposure before symptoms occur, so I--being 53--probably don't have anything to worry about.

 

[Kevin L]

If you are talking about CWD (Chronic Wasting Disease), currently there are no known cases of natural transmission to anything else besides cervids (members of the deer family), but it's always possible for it to mutate in the future.

As a precaution, the CDC recommends not eating the brain, spinal cord, eyes, spleen, tonsils, or lymph nodes of any cervids in affected areas, and avoiding contact with them as well when cleaning the animals. You will not get the disease from simply visiting the affected areas.

The most likely means of transmission in the wild is from eating infected grass in affected areas.

I can see the infected grass thing, but what about when deer spar over females during mating season? Is it possible that they exchange body fluids while fighting over territory and/or females?

I'm not an avid hunter, so forgive my ignorance if this is a stupid question.

 

[DrHenley]

Is it possible that they exchange body fluids while fighting over territory and/or females?

Not likely.

 

[Kevin L]

Not likely.

Ok. Thank you.

 

[Rivoak]

If you are talking about CWD (Chronic Wasting Disease), currently there are no known cases of natural transmission to anything else besides cervids (members of the deer family), but it's always possible for it to mutate in the future.

As a precaution, the CDC recommends not eating the brain, spinal cord, eyes, spleen, tonsils, or lymph nodes of any cervids in affected areas, and avoiding contact with them as well when cleaning the animals. You will not get the disease from simply visiting the affected areas.

The most likely means of transmission in the wild is from eating infected grass in affected areas.

South Carolina DNR has sent out an interesting email on this subject. It may be online so you could read it.

Basically, it is illegal in S.C. to import any of the deer biological materials you mentioned into this state. Or, natural deer attractants.


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