(Bill Konway photo)
From: realtree.com
By Josh Honeycutt Author of Brow Tines and Backstrap
Chronic Wasting Disease (CWD) continues to worry deer biologists, managers and hunters across the country. It isn’t going away. It’s only getting worse.
Many people aren’t aware of CWD, or simply don’t understand the full breadth of the threat it poses. Most researchers believe CWD is caused by an abnormal protein referred to as a prion. Once contracted, it is an always-fatal disease that thrives in the nervous system of cervids (deer, elk, reindeer and moose). It can be passed on through saliva, urine, feces, spinal and brain fluids, etc. Similar diseases affect other animals such as Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy (BSE) which is also referred to as Mad Cow Disease. It’s also found in sheep, known as Scrapie. Interestingly enough, we already know that Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease (CJD) — a sister disease to BSE and CWD — is capable of infecting humans.
Read full article at https://www.realtree.com/deer-hunting/articles/what-we-know-about-the-recent-news-of-a-cwd-cure