Quote:
Originally Posted by saskfly
"If someone continues researching this topic and can find factual information as to WHERE CWD originated? (Not in 1967 because of a test I know this already) How CWD originated? How CWD is transferred? And if this is a natural disease or something created through human involvement."
Donkey,
Are the answers to the above questions known and if they are, are they accepted as scientific fact? Is there anywhere I can read the accepted studies?
I am just interested in the facts. If you can point me in the right direction it would be greatly appreciated.
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Classic CJD
http://www.cdc.gov/ncidod/dvrd/cjd/index.htm
vCJD
http://www.cdc.gov/ncidod/dvrd/vcjd/index.htm (talks about how they know its from BSE)
Kuru
http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/e...cle/001379.htm
CWD interesting little paper.
http://www.google.ca/url?url=http://...0Z8NzC1RES94BA
No one can definitively say where CWD comes from. There are three theories. Scrapie jumped the species barrier in the research facility in Colorado (where the disease was first identified, with mule deer housed in the same pens as scrapie infected sheep once housed), it is a sporadic disease that has appeared and disappeared, or its always been there but no one was looking for it.
If its natural then we should do nothing. Let it runs its course I guess. Bury heads in sand. Do nothing.
That doesn't sound right to me. Does it to anyone else? Research, and maybe just maybe we will find answers. Maybe a vaccine. Maybe the source. Maybe nothing.
What we do know is that CWD is spread from animal to animal without having to ingest infected brain or spinal column like BSE or Kuru. It can be spread live animal to live animal and it can stay in the environment for a really really long time.
So from that we can say that lower the density of animals in any given spot should slow the disease. One thing we have going for us in Alberta verses Wisconsin, Colorado and others. Don't artifically group animals in close areas, (baiting) where the concentration of the prion can increase. Seems to me prevention is worth more than anything.