Primates developed CWD after consuming CWD infected cervid meat

On a related note, some years ago one of our SF soldiers died of CJD (human component of Mad Cow-closely related to CWD). The investigation led to the conclusion that his infection stemmed from eating sheep's brains while deployed to Oman. I think the link between the brain/spinal tissue/lymph node/sweet breads of infected animals is strong enough to never consider eating those parts at all and that further linkage is a real possibility.
 
A friend of mine lost her father to CJD when we were in college. He spent lots of time overseas for business and the conclusion was that he contacted it from beef. Pretty grim way to go. I don't want to mess with it.
 
Interesting but I ask if this is true why have no hunters in Wyoming contracted variant CJD ?
I have no doubt that at some point I have consumed meat from positive animals , as have many of the fellow hunters I know in our area, yet no known cases of variant CJD.
That soldier , did he die of scrapies or variant CJD. Scrapies is a known TSE and has been known to affect humans for years.

I do agree, do not eat the body parts that can be affected or carry the prion.
 
Interesting but I ask if this is true why have no hunters in Wyoming contracted variant CJD ?
I have no doubt that at some point I have consumed meat from positive animals , as have many of the fellow hunters I know in our area, yet no known cases of variant CJD.
That soldier , did he die of scrapies or variant CJD. Scrapies is a known TSE and has been known to affect humans for years.

I do agree, do not eat the body parts that can be affected or carry the prion.

I would say that it seems a bit early in the research to quantify the transmission rate. I find it very interesting in that this is the first research to show transmission to primates - so it does indicate the possible transmission to humans.

Since it is early in the process (no peer review yet) - I would say that they have already mapped out some future experiments to move this forward.

Saying all of that, the research doesn't prove transmission to humans. I normally don't put meat into my gut via external feeding tube or inject material into my brain. :)

Very interesting study though Kat, thanks for posting.
 
Interesting. I never worried much about it but now, in Minnesota, it has shown up in a few places near deer farms. I still don't understand how those are even legal, though that's a topic for another thread.

For those interested in this, listen to The Meateater Podcast Episode 70. Very interesting and informative discussion on CWD.
 
I don't think cooking the meat will destroy the prions without cooking it so hot for so long that it destroys the meat as well.

I do wonder about the methods used in this experiment though.
 
Folks, I would take this new information seriously.

Its showing there is the potential for human transmission. Nothing more. However, I would strongly suggest folks get their animals tested and not consume meat from animals that test positive.

If you don't want to thats cool. But, don't say you weren't warned. I can guarantee I won't be patient #1.
 
I still can't find the paper, but zeroing in. However, it was reported during the 2017 North American Deer Summit in Austin, TX - CWD Is Worse Than We Thought

That article at Realtree, about the Summit, mentioned CWD spreading to places it has not been before and false information spread by the captive cervid industry.

The AZ Central relayed, "The meat fed to the macaques represented the human equivalent of eating a 7-ounce steak per month."

This was presented in May at a conference in Edinburgh, Day 3. I haven't had a chance to watch it yet (8 hours).

Bighorn, nah, I am moving because Helena has a variety of resources I need on a regular basis, like the law library, Historical Society, agency headquarters. Then there are the agency meetings like the State Land Board and of course the odd year legislature. I just feel I will be able to do more with those resources.
 
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States need to outlaw game farms ASAP and curb this stuff as best we can. The fact that we are still fooling around with a disease we know very little about is idiotic.
 
I am going to listen again to that podcast. CWD is in Kansas, just not widespread yet.
 
The larger public health issue is that of soil and plant contamination. Chances are that non-hunting public is consuming contaminated soybeans and corn every single day, though perhaps in small doses. Yikes.
 
You should still be able to send to a state vet lab like CO or WY (gotta be one closer to you that would do it) and have it tested, just won't be free of charge. You have to collect the samples correctly, which they walk you through in some documents, but the lymph nodes could be easier to find. Where I live in WY there is no such thing as overnight shipping, so honestly most people in the US could get it to Laramie or Ft. Collins as fast as I could anyway.
 
Hopefully someone who is truly knowledgeable on this topic can correct me if I'm wrong: Based on my rudimentary understanding of CWD, I suspect those of us who live in the Intermountain West have already been consuming prions. I don't believe there is a good way to sterilize knives and grinders. As I understand it, hot water and detergent won't do it. In fact, I believe the heat needs to be extreme, which is why the cooking issue is irrelevant. Once the prions are on your knives and grinder I'm not sure you can get them all off - read the reports of how researchers tried to sterilize the ground-zero facility and the animals still got infected; it's spooky. So, if you get your animals cut up at a processor who handles deer and elk from Wyoming or Colorado, then I suspect his equipment has prions on it from someone's else's animal. I cut up and grind my own elk and deer and I get the animal tested it if comes from an area remotely close to a known hot zone. All that said, I find it surprising that the new research was apparently able to so readily infect a primate when tens of thousands of people (and perhaps many more) have been eating CWD contaminated deer and elk over the past 40 years without any apparent issue.
 
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