Mad Cow Disease

"The Wisconsin Medical Society on Thursday warned hunters that no test can tell them whether the venison from their deer is safe to eat," reports Ron Seely. Nevertheless, state officials are urging hunters to go all-out in harvesting (and consuming) deer in the hope that a special hunt will kill enough to halt the spread of chronic wasting disease (CWD). Like mad cow disease, CWD disease is a fatal brain illness caused by an infectious, malformed protein called a prion.

Wisconsin has a "deer management" problem. Chronic wasting disease, called CWD but dubbed mad deer disease, has been found in its wild herd of 1.6 million deer. Sales of hunting licenses, and thus state revenue from sales, are down 22% as the big fall hunt approaches. The state's hunting industry is suffering financially and running radio ads and posting billboards that ridicule hunter health concerns as "media hysteria." However, the World Health Organization says that no part of an infected deer should be eaten.

An Associated Press story speculates today that Wisconsin hunters, having killed deer in the area of the state known to be infected with mad cow-like Chronic Wasting Disease (CWD), might have spread the disease around the state by taking carcasses back to their homes and dumping them in the environment. Yes, that is a possibility, but not the most obvious possibility. Feeding rendered byproducts is a much more obvious threat to spread CWD around the state, the nation and to other livestock.

The growing US epidemic of Chronic Wasting Disease (CWD), the 'mad deer disease' that has begun a massive shooting of over 15,000 deer in Wisconsin to try to stop its spread, is finally drawing some excellent journalistic coverage to the threat of mad cow-type diseases in the US. Ever since Oprah Winfrey was sued for the "food disparagement" crime of examining US mad cow risks, the US media has been cowed into giving very little attention to this very serious disease issue.