Article on Hunters Getting Wasting Disease from Prey

[Guest guest]

This was in today's Contra Costa Times, by way of the

AP. Dianne

 

Posted on Wed, Jul. 31, 2002

 

 

Deaths Prompt Deer Disease Probe

ROBERT IMRIE

Associated Press Writer

 

WAUSAU, Wis. (AP) - The deaths of three outdoorsmen

from brain-destroying illnesses are under

investigation by medical experts who want to know

whether chronic wasting disease has crossed from

animals into humans, just as mad cow disease did in

Europe.

 

The men knew one another and ate elk and deer meat at

wild game feasts hosted by one of them in Wisconsin

during the 1980s and '90s. All three died in the

1990s.

 

Investigators want to know whether the deaths were

just a coincidence or whether the men contracted their

diseases from the meat of infected game.

 

There has never been a documented case of a person

contracting a brain-destroying illness from eating

wild animals with chronic wasting disease.

 

" We are not saying it absolutely can't happen. We know

that it's a mistake to say that, " said Dr. Larry

Schonberger, a specialist at the Centers for Disease

Control and Prevention in Atlanta. " It gets a lot of

people scared and it has economic consequences and

everything, so we need to check it out. "

 

In February, chronic wasting disease - an incurable,

brain-destroying illness that causes deer, elk,

moose and caribou to grow thin and die - was found in

Wisconsin deer, marking the first time it was

discovered east of the Mississippi River. It was

identified in Colorado elk more than three decades ago

and is now known to exist in deer or elk in eight

states and Canada; thousands of animals are now

being slaughtered to contain it.

 

Chronic wasting disease is related to mad cow disease

in cattle and Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease in humans. All

three diseases are caused by mutant proteins called

prions that make spongelike holes in the brain.

 

During the 1990s, scientists confirmed that people in

Europe developed Creutzfeldt-Jakob from eating beef

from cattle infected with mad cow disease. The finding

devastated Europe's beef industry.

 

If elk and deer meat prove to be a similar threat, the

effects would not be nearly as disastrous, in part

because beef eating is far more widespread. But such a

finding could raise fears of the disease spreading

from wild animals to livestock and endangering the

food supply.

 

Also, hunting where the disease is known to exist

would drop off dramatically, said Steve Torbit, a

National Wildlife Federation biologist.

 

" It may be possible hunting persists as a way to

collect hides or heads and antlers, " he said. " It is a

rocky ride we are in for. "

 

The Wisconsin Division of Health and the CDC are

looking at autopsy results and other records regarding

James Botts, Wayne Waterhouse and Roger Marten.

Waterhouse, of Chetek, Wis., and Marten, of Mondovi,

Wis., both 66, died in 1993. Botts, 55, of Blaine,

Minn., died in 1999. Waterhouse and Marten were avid

hunters; Botts fished.

 

Waterhouse and Botts died of what was diagnosed as

Creutzfeldt-Jakob, their families said.

Creutzfeldt-Jakob is always fatal and occurs in just

one in a million people. Marten died of Pick's

disease, a more common brain-destroying disorder, said

his son, Randy.

 

Jeff Davis, the state epidemiologist, said four or

five cases of Creutzfeldt-Jakob are diagnosed in

Wisconsin each year. What makes the deaths of

Waterhouse, Botts and Marten worth investigating is

that the men knew one another and attended game feasts

that Waterhouse held at his cabin near Superior, Davis

said.

 

Botts' widow, Judy, believes her husband's illness

came from the meat he ate at the feasts. She said the

gatherings were the only thing the three occasional

friends had in common, other than their love of

hunting or fishing.

 

In 1999, a World Health Organization panel concluded

there was no scientific evidence that chronic wasting

disease can infect humans. But it also said no part of

a deer or elk believed to be infected should be eaten.

 

After years of suspicions, it was not until 1994 that

there was enough evidence for scientists to conclude

that humans could get a form of mad cow disease from

beef.

 

Dr. G. Richard Olds, chairman of medicine at the

Medical College of Wisconsin in Milwaukee, said it is

possible scientists could come to same conclusion

about chronic wasting disease, though it could take as

long as 15 years.

 

" I am not trying to scare people inappropriately, " he

said. " But we need to be honest about this situation. "

 

 

 

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