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Mon 19 Sep, 2005 09:08 pm
What with "Mad Cows" and scrapie and " Chronic Capybara Ague", we now have yet another animal disease to worry about. Deer and Elk in areas of US and Canada have been exhibiting a disease that has been spreading rather quickly in wild populations, and in some game farms. The disease, called "Chronic Wasting Disease" seems to be of the same family of prion infections that gave us Mad Cow and Creutzfeld Jacob Disease in Humans.
The latest states showing positive results in roadkill deer are West Vrginia, Ohio and New York. (Im assuming that there are similar infected deer and elk in Pa , its just that we are probably more savvy drivers)
Researchesr are still in the dark whether this always fatal, brain infection is transmissable to humans. Right now the word on the street is an advisory to cut away any parts of deer meat that are known to concentrate prions. The only thing that I know is that prions are found in brain tissue and the spinal chord. There was no further information as to whether any other areas will so collect prions (Itd be my guess that lymph nodes would also be suspect, but thats only a guess)
Those of you that hunt and eat deermeat should find some advisory board from your state or Province and see if theres a specific advisory for CWD at your home state. As for me, I cant stand deer meat so its not a prollem. I know that there are a few of you who swear by it and, I believe Timber or cj are deer meat eaters. Anybody know any more, Id be happy to scare the crap out of my hunting friends. Id be interested in knowing whether anyone has reported CWD in moose?
Please give me more details on the Chronic Capybara Ague.
Thank you.
well, its an Ague, that we know for sure, and, it its only seen in chronic capybaras.
Thank god mine are of the non-chronic variety.
Yeh, I've seen articles about that chronic wasting disease bit in deer and elk for a while; have been idly wondering about it..
well, Im telling folks that, until they are damn sure, dont eat deer meat. The reason is, that deer meat, because its so lean, is favored by many to mix with pork to make sausage or balogna. The very act of grinding the meat would distribute prions that may be present in heretofore unidentified organs that contact the muscle .\I dont think they know enough about the disease and its pathways yet to make any statements that deermeat is safe to eat.
Interesting stuff FM, are they sure it's a disease?
They haven't just been on one of those low carb diets, have they?
So, only eat small roadkill animals.
In Britain, we "grind" corn (wheat) but we "mince" meat. In other words, we think of grinding as a dry process only. We also grind knives and chisels.
You probably didn't need to know that, though.
so we shall no longer call them "meat grinders" in favor of the more continental term, "meat mincer".
farmerman wrote:so we shall no longer call them "meat grinders" in favor of the more continental term, "meat mincer".
meat mincer sounds like a gay term....
Bumping and grinding sound more hetero....?
I think minced bits are smaller than ground bits...
On the wasting disease, I haven't read about it in a while - am figuring prions can be found in spinal cord.
Here's an old but background-giving article on the subject -
http://www.sciencenews.org/articles/20021130/bob9.asp
As far as I could find out (confirmed by the county vet's office :wink: ) CWD was first found in 1967 - and effects only American deer (the American term 'elk' is not identical with the European elk, it's what we call 'wapiti').
This article has information about where in the body prions can be found in similar prion related diseases - farmerman is right about lymph nodes, which I hadn't heard mentioned before.
http://www.emedicinehealth.com/articles/40435-1.asp
yeh Walter, what you call elk, we call "moose"
. I saw in Maine that the state health Dept had induced CWD in moose just to see whether itd take. It did, I hope they discarded the carcass in a sanitary and proper fashion.
I was guessing about he lymph nodes. Now the weekend butchers will need to be extremely careful, lest they release prions into the muscle tissue.
Id think that timber would check in on this topic, unless he cant stand deer meat either.
Here in WI they have held special hunts to help wipe out some of the large deer population to try to stop or slow the spread of CWD. Some people have speculated that the increase in frequency of Alzheimers and CWD are not just a coincedence.
I commented on some earlier thread - I think the subject was mad cow - that I have a friend of a friend whose husband died from one of these things, a CJakob varient, if I remember right. I only heard the details once in passing and haven't a retentive mind except for nubbins of information or senses of how things work, not detailed as some. Anyway, he was a veterinarian...
Whoa. I never heard of such a thing.
I have a lot of deer and moose meat in my freezer.
I haven't gotten sick yet, but now you've gotten me paranoid.
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