Wasting disease found at second Wisconsin deer farm

[Guest guest]

hmmm

so, they are gonna slaughter as many wild deer as they can...

sooo..if mad cow is finally recognized as in the US, does that mean agents will

start arresting folks outside mcdonalds???

" i'm sorry sir, you bought a bigmac,..its off to manzannar fer you.. "

Wasting disease found at second Wisconsin deer farm

 

 

USA: October 21, 2002

 

 

MADISON, Wis. - A second captive deer in Wisconsin has tested positive for

chronic wasting disease, a fatal wildlife illness related to " mad cow " disease,

state agriculture officials said.

 

 

The deer came from a breeding farm in Walworth County, in far southeastern

Wisconsin, the state Department of Agriculture, Trade and Consumer Protection

said in a statement.

Chronic wasting disease (CWD) is in the same family of illnesses as mad cow,

formally known as bovine spongiform encephalopathy. Both fatal conditions are

caused by misshapen proteins called prions that destroy the brain.

 

Unlike mad cow, chronic wasting disease in deer has never been shown to " jump

species " and infect cattle or humans. However, the World Health Organization has

advised against eating venison or any part of an animal that appears sick.

 

Wisconsin has found CWD in 40 wild deer since the disease first emerged in the

state in February, but the disease was not confirmed in the state's captive deer

population until September, when a whitetail shot on a hunting preserve in

Portage County tested positive.

 

The herd on the Walworth Country farm that produced the second captive case had

been quarantined since Sept. 20 because records indicated that deer from the

Portage County preserve, in central Wisconsin, may have been sent to the

Walworth County operation.

 

State officials have also quarantined a second Walworth County farm where the

Portage County deer may have come from.

 

" We are trying to get all those strands straightened out and see where the

infection originated, and then also where else it might have gone, " state

Department of Agriculture spokeswoman Donna Gilson told Reuters.

 

The latest case was diagnosed in an older doe that appeared healthy, the

statement said. Gilson said the rest of the Walworth County farm's herd,

totaling about 120 deer, would probably be destroyed and tested as well.

 

Meanwhile, state wildlife officials are gearing up for an extended fall hunting

season designed to eradicate as many wild deer as possible from a roughly

400-square-mile section of southwest Wisconsin where all of the state's known

cases of CWD in wild deer have originated. Hunting season in the area will run

from Oct. 24 to Jan. 31.

 

The state Department of Natural Resources held four week-long hunts this summer

to get a head start on the effort. The agency said last week that nine out of

358 deer harvested during the August hunt tested positive for CWD, bringing the

total number of cases in the state's wild herd to 40.

 

Test results on the last week-long hunt, held in September, were pending, the

DNR said.

 

 

 

 

REUTERS NEWS SERVICE