First Confirmed Case of Chronic Wasting Disease in Washington State - Spokane County

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krusty

We're on the Road to Nowhere...
wdfw.wa.gov

First chronic wasting disease case confirmed in Spokane County

SPOKANE- Washington’s first case of chronic wasting disease (CWD) has been confirmed in an adult female white-tailed deer that was found dead in the
wdfw.wa.gov wdfw.wa.gov

It's notable that....

1) Some Prion (the abnormal protein molecules that cause this invariably fatal cervid [elk, deer, moose, caribou] disease) researchers believe that it may well be transmissible to humans.

2) Prions CANNOT be rendered harmless through ANY type of game meat preparation or cooking.

3) The disease incubation period before symptoms appear may range from a few months to several years.

4) CDC and WDFG recommend having all harvested cervix game meat tested for potential CWD infection before consumption....among several other preventative CWD recommendations.

5) Healthy cervids appear to acquire this disease from infected cervids via urine, saliva, droppings, and biting flies.....and the prions may remain infectious in soil for years.

6) Researchers have not discovered any indication of natural immunity to CWD among cervid populations.

7) I don't believe the hunting community will pay much attention to any of the above...perhaps until it's too late.
 
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1) Some Prion (the abnormal protein molecules that cause this invariably fatal cervid [elk, deer, moose, caribou] disease) researchers believe that it may well be transmissible to humans.
...
5) Healthy cervids appear to acquire this disease from infected cervids via urine, saliva, droppings, and biting flies.....and the prions may remain infectious in soil for years.

WOW!
OK, so consuming meat from an infected cervid [elk, deer, moose, caribou] can infect humans? (I don't)
Can cows, pigs, etc. become infected (by biting flies)?
Could biting flies transmit CWD directly to humans??? 😱

from this link https://wdfw.wa.gov/newsroom/news-r...wasting-disease-case-confirmed-spokane-county
To date there are no confirmed cases of CWD transmission from wildlife to domestic animals or from cervids to other wild ungulate species. There is also no scientific evidence of CWD being transmitted from cervids to humans. Research conducted in 2022 and 2023 by National Institutes of Health (NIH) scientists supports this. According to the NIH website “A new study of prion diseases, using a human cerebral organoid model, suggests there is a substantial species barrier preventing transmission of chronic wasting disease (CWD) from cervids—deer, elk and moose—to people.”
 
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The hunting population, which continues to decline year after year, is moving in the opposite direction of expansion of CWD across North America.

As a youngster (and a hunter) I knew a great many hunters, and as I grew older I noted that fewer and fewer of my neighbors, coworkers, and acquaintances hunted. At the current time the only people I know that still hunt are those living in Alaska.

We'll just have to wait and see.

Nonetheless CWD (and prions in general) are an interesting biological phenomena...in a technical sense!
 
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While the CDC may have some reservations about the ability of chronic wasting disease to jump from corvids to humans, it is pretty well established that misfolded prions jumped from sheep (scrapie) to cows (bovine spongiform encephalopathy = BSE) to humans (variant Creutzfeld-Jakob disease =vCJD) in the 1980s and 1990s, especially in the U.K. U.K. beef producers were extracting non-marketable protein sources / bone meal (such as meat near the spinal cord and nervous tissue) from sheep carcasses to serve as a protein supplement in cow feed.; in the U.S., soybeans provide a ready source of protein in cow feed. Several hundred people were infected with these prion proteins. As the spongiform name implies, the misfolded prion proteins kills neurons, leaving holes in the brain and spinal cord. Once symptoms appear, vCJD is invariably fatal in humans, often within a year, though some individual may carry chronic, asymptotic infections. Screening of animals and changes in animal-feed practices have led to a dramatic reduction in cases of vCJD in the U.K. Fortunately, occurrence of vCJD in the U.S. has been low due to different agricultural practices.
Steve
 
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Cabezon said:
While the CDC may have some reservations about the ability of chronic wasting disease to jump from corvids to humans, it is pretty wall established that misfolded prions jumped from sheep (scrapie) to cows (bovine spongiform encephalopathy = BSE) to humans (variant Creutzfeld-Jakob disease =vCJD) in the 1980s and 1990s, especially in the U.K. U.K. beef producers were extracting non-marketable protein sources / bone meal (such as meat near the spinal cord and nervous tissue) from sheep carcasses to serve as a protein supplement in cow feed.; in the U.S., soybeans provide a ready source of protein in cow feed. Several hundred people were infected with these prion proteins. As the spongiform name implies, the misfolded prion proteins kills neurons, leaving holes in the brain and spinal cord. Once symptoms appear, vCJD is invariably fatal in humans, often within a year, though some individual may carry chronic, asymptotic infections. Screening of animals and changes in animal-feed practices have led to a dramatic reduction in cases of vCJD in the U.K. Fortunately, occurrence of vCJD in the U.S. has been low due to different agricultural practices.
Steve
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Good! But what is the story around "acquire this disease from... biting flies"?
Hmmmm, ticks too? :(
 
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Brian Miller said:
Good! But what is the story around "acquire this disease from... biting flies"?
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Presumably, if the misfolded prion proteins are in the blood / body fluids, a biting fly can act as a vector to transmit them from an infected animal to an uninfected victim. Bites can be "sloppy". Biting flies have been documented transmitting bovine mastitis, tularemia (from deer flies), and even Lyme disease among other diseases.
Steve
 
Cabezon said:
Presumably, if the misfolded prion proteins are in the blood / body fluids, a biting fly can act as a vector to transmit them from an infected animal to an uninfected victim. Bites can be "sloppy". Biting flies have been documented transmitting bovine mastitis, tularemia (from deer flies), and even Lyme disease among other diseases.
Steve
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Presumably you'd have to have a significant host population to support transmission via those vectors.

Some game units in the midwest currently have a 50% CWD infection rate...we're probably decades from that situation in the PNW.
 
I had a neighbor die of spongiform encephalitis when I was in high school in the 90s. The guy went from perfectly normal to screaming and threatening his wife to dead in the hospital in something like a week's time. The best guess the doctors had is that he had gotten it from eating beef in the UK some decade or two earlier and it had been dormant for most of that time. Definitely makes me think twice about eating game meat that hasn't been tested.

Although really, if it can be transmitted via blood I'd be worried at some point about cross contamination at places that do game processing. I know Oregon at least has mandatory CWD checks for some of the game units, but how many people just drive by those and don't do the test?
 
The progression of zoonotic disease recognition in the medical community is interesting and predictable.

A 40 some year old associate became critically ill a few years back and was admitted to ICU. He was a previously healthy, physically active person that didn't engage any of the lifestyles that are often associated with illness, nor did the tests performed reveal any of the more commonly expected pathologies.

As his condition continued to deteriorate he was placed on life support, and the physicians told his family that should prepare themselves for the very distinct probability that he may not survive.

Finally in desperation one of his physicians decided to pursue far more unlikely serological testing avenues....which turned up a diagnosis of West Nile Virus....which wasn't very reassuring because the course of treatment consists of pretty much what was already underway....but at least it further ruled out some other possible disorders.

As his hospitalization continued, he began to make slow progress, was eventually discharged and convalesced at home. Returning to work in a weakened state, he still feels some of the effects of WNV.

That of course brings up the issue of where he came in contact with the mosquitoes that carry the virus. He hadn't traveled out of country, nor had he even visited parts of the US where the disease is more prevalent.

He does, however, live in a rural area that is seasonally very swampy and populated with large populations of waterfowl, corvids, and other avian species known to carry WNV....and is also heavily infested with mosquitoes. It's believed that's the likely source of his infection.

His experience illustrates the inherent difficulties the medical community faces when dealing with emerging and previously exotic disorders. It's not a conspiracy, but merely the application of the very sensible approach of suspecting and treating the far more common pathologies that afflict mankind than chasing far less probable causes at enormous cost.

It can take years for the detection, recognition and medical reporting of initially obscure and rare disorders to become widely accepted.

To this day my coworker still encounters disbelief from clinicians when he mentions that he had WNV, and the common response is "we don't have that here"....until they read the pathologists' report. And even then he occasionally hears "obviously must have been a misdiagnosis or false positive".
 
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I haven’t harvested or pursued big game for nearly 20 years. My dog, on the other hand, finds roadkill deer and the recent remains of other vertebrates in my area quite attractive, bringing them home and coating himself frequently.

I confess to enjoying game meat as a delicious addition. I gave up waterfowl this year. Itt unlikely to be much of a treat nowadays, yet still attractive. And close family members have succumbed to encephalitis, the source of which in my experience is difficult and expensive to pinpoint.

I suppose I’m worried most about transfer of this from infected deer/elk/moose to scavengers like coyotes, magpies, crows or dogs, and then to others in ghe population. You folks seem quite knowledgeable, my guess is the answer to this question is the perfectly legitimate “don’t know yet “, but, perhsps we know something?
 
I’ve tried digesting all of this and have failed miserably… one would guess it’s my age. Or beer and whiskey…
 
Roper said:
I’ve tried digesting all of this and have failed miserably… one would guess it’s my age. Or beer and whiskey…
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As Redd Foxx once stated, after being asked about his unhealthy lifestyle choices; "You're gonna feel like a damn fool...laying in that hospital bed...dyin' from nothin'."

Or maybe that grouse you ate years ago with the deformed feet is exacting its revenge!
 
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