# Hunters could be spreading CWD via deer scents



## Tom Morang (Aug 14, 2001)

Page URL: http://www.nationalpost.com/news/national/story.html?f=/stories/20020506/133605.html


May 6, 2002


Deer hunters could be spreading lethal germs
Illness related to mad cow disease, experts say


Robert Remington
National Post
CALGARY - Hunters may be unwittingly spreading Chronic Wasting Disease by using deer scents made from the urine of infected animals in game farms, some scientists and hunting advocates fear.

The packaged scents, spread on the ground by hunters to lure quarry, could contain prions, the resilient agent scientists blame for CWD, an illness related to mad cow disease that is associated with animals in fenced game farms.

Although the link between deer scents and CWD has not been studied, several experts say there is a "theoretical risk" that CWD could be spread by the deer attractants.

Rob Miskosky, editor of Alberta Outdoorsmen, says some game farmers are packaging deer scents to diversify in an industry tainted by outbreaks of CWD and reeling from bans on shooting captive animals and collapsed Asian markets for elk antler velvet. One consortium of Alberta game farmers is constructing a facility capable of collecting 1,000 ounces of urine a day from deer.

Norm Moore, a game farmer and industry spokesman, dismisses the concerns, saying the industry is strictly monitored for disease.

"We have an identification and tracking system that is second to none in agriculture," he said.

Although packaged scents are not tested for safety, Mr. Moore says health precautions undertaken by game ranchers make it unlikely any disease would be associated with the packaged urine.

"I don't think there are any regulations specifically for that product, but [game farm] herds would have to be on the normal health program or they couldn't have the animals," Mr. Moore said.

Darrel Rowledge, director of the advocacy group Alliance for Public Wildlife, says it is astonishing that such products, which have been used by hunters for decades, are released into the marketplace untested. Hunters spread the scents, made from a combination of urine and feces, on their boots and clothing and on trees, branches, rock, grasses and the ground.

Mr. Miskosky, writing in the current edition of Alberta Outdoorsmen, says scientific journals confirm that TSE prions, the mutant protein that causes CWD, have been found in urine long before the disease is detected in animals and could remain viable in soil for years. Destroying the prions requires incineration of an infected animal in temperatures higher than 600 Celsius.

The Canadian Food Inspection Agency is investigating one case of CWD in Alberta. Dr. George Luterbach, a CFIA veterinarian, said all 72 animals on the infected farm will be destroyed and that a compensation package is being worked out with the rancher. In Saskatchewan, about 8,000 elk from game farms were destroyed last year after an outbreak of the disease, which was confirmed in more than 200 animals.

The cost to federal taxpayers of controlling the Saskatchewan outbreak has been estimated by one animal rights group at $60-million, including compensation to the affected game farmers.

Dr. Luterbach said the agency is also waiting for lab test results on 12 animals from the infected Alberta farm that were sold to other game ranchers. If the tests come back positive, it is likely all the animals on the other farms will also be destroyed, he said.

There have also been outbreaks of CWD in Colorado, Wisconsin, Kansas, Nebraska, Montana, Oklahoma and South Dakota. Some jurisdictions, including Manitoba and Wyoming, have banned game farming.

Hunters fear infections from captive herds will spread to the wild, severely affecting the multi-billion-dollar-a-year hunting industry. The disease, which kills animals by turning their brains to mush, has never been transferred across the species barrier to humans.

The game farming industry says it is unfairly blamed for CWD. Mr. Moore says the disease started in the wild in Colorado, spread into a zoo and was then passed into captive herds when a stricken zoo animal was sold to a game farm, where it spread among the contained herd. The industry's stringent testing makes it a lightning rod for CWD because its detection system is unmatched by public wildlife administrators, he said.

Game farmers sell the meat of wild game such as deer and elk -- which is low in fat and cholesterol -- to restaurants.

[email protected]


----------



## Tom Morang (Aug 14, 2001)

http://www.promedmail.org/pls/askus..._BACK_PAGE,F2400_P1001_PUB_MAIL_ID:1000,18158

One researcher has this to say:

[There are tests that clearly detect prions in urine. So although this is a
theoretical risk, it stands to reason the scents utilizing feces and urine
may be able to spread the disease. There is research indicating prions may
be in saliva, and survive the gastrointestinal track, which suggests
credibility for prions in feces. This may be a theoretical risk at the
moment, but it clearly points to an area where research is lacking. -
Mod.TG]

........tm


----------



## PrtyMolusk (Aug 13, 2000)

Howdy, Tom-

Just two points.......

1) As we get further into this topic, the operative phrase seems to be "....an area where research is lacking."

2) With every new piece of information, food plots look better and better.


----------



## sadocf1 (Mar 10, 2002)

There are, of course, many ways in which a disease like CWD can be spread.
Feces could well be something we have overlooked.
Feces of scavengers- vultures, ravens, crows, eagles-
Birds migrate- might feed on an infected carcass and crap out the prions in the next state- 
Wiley the coyote could be a culprit. He has been accused of many misdeeds, and we have been trying to eradicate him since we got rid of the buffalo because the rascal developed an appetite for ranchers calves and sheep. Bounties, poison, trappers , he is hunted with hounds, hunted from planes, snowmobiles, pickup trucks, horseback, nation wide. Still he prospers
He will be out there, waiting, when mankind no longer inhabits this earth- A Navaho said so


----------

