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Hunters First to Die from "Zombie Deer" Disease

In the minds of the writer based on some bullshit. CWD and prion diseases are not rapid onset like the people in WY the article talks about dying. It can take years for your brain to break down.

If it's so dangerous and they so scared it's gonna jump to humans why does CPW force us to expose ourselves to the brain and spinal fluid to send heads in for testing. 🤔
 
I only briefly skimmed the article but I believe they "posited" (read: guessed) that the hunters cause of death was CWD.

I don't think it's yet confirmed whether CWD or Mad Cow can transfer to humans.

I used to know a couple hunters in IL and WI that would blast any deer exhibiting symptoms of CWD, even if it "ruined" their (bow) hunts. They also had land-owner tags, so I guess that helps. This goes back to late 90s / early 2000s.
 
In CWD zones, you have to take your deer to the check station where they take samples.

On the public land that I hunt, which is not a CWD zone, it used to be required on just opening weekend and Thanksgiving Weekend to take your deer to the check station but they no longer require that. Harvests are down. Too many hunters and not enough deer, especially with the deer drive hunters. One guy posts at a spot and the other 2 or 3 guys wander through to pressure any deer toward the shooter. Which scares off all the deer for everyone.

I watched a tutorial on deboning from the Arkansas fish and game people and in their CWD zones, you have to leave the bones there but you can take the meat off of the bone.
 
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I have a lot of trouble with the article. Lots of assumptions made on CWD being the cause of CJD. There are other ways of contracting CJD, I think it’s a bit of a stretch to factually say “two guys, live in a CWD area, eat deer meat, contracted CJD = zombie deer disease killing people.

Could it happen? Yes,- but lots of speculation without any real facts that consuming CWD infected venison caused CJD.
 
Here in the great corrupt state of mi one is required to go online and drop a pin of location of harvest along with date and time and method of harvesting. It Carrie’s fines and even jail time for those that don’t . And it’s in the name of tracking CWD and other diseases- except there is not a tissue/tooth head required or any fields on the state site for such info- Brilliant!
 
Here in the great corrupt state of mi one is required to go online and drop a pin of location of harvest along with date and time and method of harvesting. It Carrie’s fines and even jail time for those that don’t . And it’s in the name of tracking CWD and other diseases- except there is not a tissue/tooth head required or any fields on the state site for such info- Brilliant!
In my state, you have to eOSR when you get to a public land spot. (electronic On Site Registration.) You can also use the same app to log a harvest. County, property, sex of the deer.
 
Probably 85% of the meat we eat is deer. We have a few cases in the state of CWD and a couple in the adjoining county. Had to turn in all deer heads during a 2 week period of the season. Ended up turning in 3. No cases found the past season of heads turned in for analysis as far as I know. When our turn in heads regs hit this year I researched the hell out of it. Never found one case of transmission to humans. Are there any?
 
"In 2022, a 72-year-old man with a history of consuming meat from a CWD-infected deer population presented with rapid-onset confusion and aggression. His friend, who had also eaten venison from the same deer population, recently died of CJD, raising concerns about a potential link between CWD and human prion disease. Despite aggressive symptomatic treatment of seizures and agitation, the patient’s condition deteriorated and he died within a month of initial presentation. The diagnosis was confirmed postmortem as sporadic CJD with homozygous methionine at codon 129 (sCJDMM1). The patient’s history, including a similar case in his social group, suggests a possible novel animal-to-human transmission of CWD. Based on non-human primate and mouse models, cross-species transmission of CJD is plausible. Due to the challenge of distinguishing sCJDMM1 from CWD without detailed prion protein characterization, it is not possible to definitively rule out CWD in these cases. Although causation remains unproven, this cluster emphasizes the need for further investigation into the potential risks of consuming CWD-infected deer and its implications for public health."

"It is not positive to rule out" and "it is not possible to rule in" kind of go hand and hand here.

Couple things are suspect about this article. You're dealing with two elderly gentleman, no mention of vaccination status or other medications, with vague suggestion of eating venison from the "same deer population". (Is that the same state of deer, same county of deer, same herd?) I'd like to know more details on that. The article mentions "aggressive symptomatic treatment of seizures and agitation", which is fine but there's no treatment for any prion-related disease regardless of the cause or source of the prion.

There has been already postulation of the possibility of prion disease related to certain medical therapies to treat certain viruses, or possibly that virus itself. What are the odds that that will be investigated as a potential etiology versus a vague hypothesis to discourage people from being self-sufficient and finding their own food sources?

I'm somewhat concerned that they already have a pre-existing primate to mouse model- mentioned above - have a certain investigators' monkeys accidentally/intentionally released possibly in contact with rodents for unknown transmission for prions? Don't forget the lies and disinformation we were subject to. Lets not forget Fauci's specific directive on "use of fear" to scare people into one behavior vs. another.

They already have been several medications in the category of what is referred to as biologicals, specifically for autoimmune diseases, that have been definitively linked to PMLE, a fatal prion brain infection.

I think it's fair to publish the article, but very premature in the insinuation of the cause and link which is not definitive.
 
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wait until they finally have to admit CWD is s genetic disorder/mutation and not a "contagious" disease that can be passed through the dirt.

but there's no government controls and studies and funds for that. so we'll keep getting fed the fear porn
 
50% of my protein comes from venison, they are going to have to come up with some better proof than that to change what I'm eating
 
wait until they finally have to admit CWD is s genetic disorder/mutation and not a "contagious" disease that can be passed through the dirt.

but there's no government controls and studies and funds for that. so we'll keep getting fed the fear porn
There are also genotypic disorders/mutations as you say that can affect susceptibility to a given infection. We also know age effects susceptibility, race (for example sick cell likely developed as protection from malaria) etc. I fear more what is being done in labs and being allowed to cross to nature - intentionally or unintentionally.
 
I spoke with a biologist friend of mine at Wyoming G&F on this topic today.

From my notes:
  • There has never been a verified case of Chronic Wasting Disease jumping to humans in Wyoming
  • The persons in the story died of Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease (CJD)
  • Recommends testing meat before consumption
  • Wyo G&F testing is free, just drop off head. 2-5 days
  • Elk in Laramie area 2-5% infection rate
  • Deer 20% (He thought statewide it was 25%) That is 1 in 5 deer ...ugh
  • Disinfection of knifes, coolers etc. if found to have CWD: 30% bleach to water- soak 5 minutes.
 
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I spoke with a biologist friend of mine at Wyoming G&F on this topic today.

From my notes:
  • There has never been a verified case of Chronic Wasting Disease jumping to humans in Wyoming
  • The persons in the story died of Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease (CJD)
  • Recommends testing meat before consumption
  • Wyo G&F testing is free, just drop off head. 2-5 days
  • Elk in Laramie area 2-5% infection rate
  • Deer 20% (He thought statewide it was 25%) That is 1 in 5 deer ...ugh
  • Disinfection of knifes, coolers etc. if found to have CWD: 30% bleach to water- soak 5 minutes.
25% infection rate?? That seems awful high. Under most epidemiological scenarios of an untreatable, contagious fatal disease, that would wipe out the entire population pretty quickly.
 
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25% infection rate?? That seems awful high. Under most epidemiological scenarios of an untreatable, contagious fatal disease, that would wipe out the entire population pretty quickly.
Way above my pay-grade. Staying in a Holiday Inn Express from time to time, in no way makes me a Biologist....I'm simply regurgitating what I was told. Even at the 20% number that he was solid on, I found that shocking.....
 
Way above my pay-grade. Staying in a Holiday Inn Express from time to time, in no way makes me a Biologist....I'm simply regurgitating what I was told. Even at the 20% number that he was solid on, I found that shocking.....
I understand, and I’m not doubting you. I’m not a biologist either, but I’ve done a lot of herd-health work in my career. Normally, 25% infection rate would mean everyone is going to get it pretty soon, unless it’s not easily transmitted. But if it’s not easily transmitted, why are 25% already infected? It’s a bit of an enigma to me, but I’m not fully versed on CWD.
 
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Next they're gonna say we should voluntarily stop shooting lead bullets to save the children and pregnant women. And yet there is no evidence that hunters eating game shot with lead bullets have elevated lead levels. Just trust what you read, you'll be fine.
 
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Article is trash…..
That was exactly his position. Everything that he said was in an effort to downplay concerns.

ALL of the line items were only brought up, because I asked the specific question.

The conversation only took place because I initiated it.
In terms of sanitizing and testing these were phrased as “What do YOU do” questions.

My “impression” is that Wyo G&F is afraid this article with hurt tag sales. (Just my impression) They have been flooded with calls since the article.

I stumbled across this thread doing a google search and thought I would share. Do what you will with the information.

On the deer numbers, it is my understanding (if I understood correctly) the deer herds here in Wyoming have been hit hard by rough winters and the herds greatly downsized. Perhaps this explains the larger ratio.
 
The NRA had a 4 part series on CWD in deer back in the early 2000's in the Hunter magazine. Talks about the federal government studies around fort collins ,CO where they were researching this in deer (CWD), elk, sheep, cattle (mad cow). I wish I had saved those as a reference. I think I remember that pigs seem to be immune to this.

After the study was done, some of the deer where sold to game farms in Michigan, Wisconsin because the genetics of the deer produced large racks and that was a contributing factor on how CWD got into those states ( some of the deer sold had CWD) and others that had started game farms.

Around the same time Britain was having issues with CJD in certain areas of the county and at the same time it was noticed that there was more cattle having issues with mad cow, so the British were trying to establish if it could jump from cattle to humans. I think it was 60 minutes had done a segment on that.

One of my co workers was from Finland at the time. I mentioned this to him and he was well aware of what was going on in Britain. The Finns believed that the diet in Britain ( eating the brains of cattle) was causing CJD in Humans. So the Finns made sure that any cuts of meat at that point on did not contain any spinal column, and no brain tissue.

The Finns also banned the feeding of any animal parts to cattle (left over after butchering), since the increase in mad cow was believed due to this practice as well.
 
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It’s hard to take anything they say seriously any more ; MI DNR at the annual meeting just stated there are way way more deer then they thought after 10 years or more of telling us the CWD would kill the whole herd and probably all of us is lead poison and lime disease didn’t get us first . So CDW isn’t appearing to wipe out deer herd but still more rules and restrictions and higher tag prices . Makes perfect sense if you don’t think about it