Disease in deer could be concern for humans Winter break
Ohio hunters should be bothered that a second incidence of chronic wasting disease has been confirmed, this in a deer on a hunting preserve in Guernsey County.
The facts — the disease kills any and all infected deer and its spread cannot be checked — are unsettling enough. Recent research findings hint, though don’t prove, the disease might yet find its way into humans.
Captive deer have provided the disease’s path into the wild in many states and provinces. Captive herds, whether kept on hunt preserves that deal in pay-to-play sport shooting or assembled for breeding largeantlered and big-bodied animals to sell, have a presence in Ohio.
The first confirmed case of CWD in the state was found on a Holmes County preserve in 2014. More than one animal was found to be infected, and the deer on the property were destroyed.
So far, probably because of the diligence of Ohio Division of Wildlife personnel, containment procedures put in place and cooperation from hunters, the disease has not yet turned up in freerange deer.
But the CWD prion, a type of rogue protein, can stay viable in the soil for years, possibly decades. The CWD prion can be consumed by deer from soil and plants, and can be transmitted in the flesh of an infected animal.
The eating of meat containing CWD prions doesn’t necessarily mean the disease will occur in the eater. No human infection has been traced to the consumption of venison, the result of what is called the species barrier.
Whether the barrier provides ultimate protection remains open to question. After years of denials, for instance, it is accepted that the prion that triggers mad cow disease occasionally can infect people who have eaten beef from infected cattle.
Moreover, the species barrier regarding CWD might be more easily breached than previously thought, suggests a study conducted at Colorado State University’s Prion Research Center. Researchers there discovered that macaque monkeys who ate CWD-infected deer meat developed the disease.
The spread of CWD into a primate who ate infected meat had never before been identified. What’s more, it apparently is possible for prions to change.
For example, it is believed that CWD, which infects deer, elk and moose, evolved in an area of the Rocky Mountains from scrapie, which infects sheep. If that is the case, it is conceivable that another transformation could occur that allows the CWD prion to infect other species.
Even a healthylooking deer could be carrying the CWD prion. The latency period of the disease has been estimated at between 17 months and two years.
Caution needed
Two groups of ice fishermen required rescuing from Lake Erie last weekend when their ATVs plunged through the ice in separate incidents near East Harbor State Park.
A group of three fishermen and another pair of fishermen were pulled out of the water. Also, two snowmobiles and an ATV went through the ice in Michigan waters near Toledo, The Blade reported.
The body of a Michigan man was pulled from about 10 feet of water not far from the Lake Erie shore eight days after his ATV broke through the ice in early January.
Early last week, the U.S. Coast Guard issued a warning for hazardous ice conditions on Lake Erie.
Parting shots
Today is the last day to legally hunt ducks, coots and mergansers in central and southern Ohio. … The hunting seasons for squirrel, grouse, fox and raccoon run through Wednesday. … Ohio’s deer archery season continues through next Sunday.