- Hello, Jeff -
-
- Testing the theory of contaminated ground playing a part
in epidemiology of both CWD and BSE, the ranches mentioned below may be
field testing opportunities. Also, testing the risk of CWD to cattle.
The moderator does bring up these points that you and I raised a couple
of years ago, and originally were denied by the Vetertinary and Medical
establishments.
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- Patricia
-
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- Chronic Wasting Disease In Saskatchewan
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- Source: Edmonton Journal (edited) (A ProMed post)
1-15-3
-
- The Canadian Food Inspection Agency has banned 4 former
Saskatchewan elk farmers from growing grain or raising livestock because
their land may harbor chronic wasting disease organisms. They're [the owners
of] among 40 farms in Saskatchewan where elk tested positive for the fatal
brain-wasting disease after a diseased elk was imported from South Dakota
in 1989. It spread when offspring of the infected elk were sold and resold
among 39 other farms.
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- Federal veterinarians have killed about 8300 elk on the
40 Saskatchewan farms -- and one Alberta farm -- to try to eradicate the
disease. It has cost the federal government CAD 33 million [about USD 24
424 000] to compensate the farmers for loss of their elk and for disposal
costs, said Dr Lynn Bates, of the Canadian Food Inspection Agency in Winnipeg.
She told a weekend conference in Nisku that the 4 Saskatchewan farms are
banned from raising any livestock or growing grain until it can be proven
that deer or elk won't become reinfected. The ban on grain is to ensure
it doesn't end up in animal feed. There have never been any proven cases
of the disease in humans, and it has only shown up in elk and deer. But
while there's no evidence that cattle or other livestock may get chronic
wasting disease, it's not entirely ruled out.
-
- Chronic wasting disease is believed to be spread not
by a bacterium or virus but by abnormal cellular proteins called prions.
The disease is related to other brain-wasting diseases that include scrapie
in sheep and mad cow disease. "The science at this time says that
the environment may act as a source of the prions in a situation where
you have the infection long-term," Bates said.
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- Buildings and equipment at the farms have been disinfected,
and soil has been removed from where elk congregated, she said. But removing
soil from an entire farm is impractical. The only way the 4 farms could
be farmed again is to stock the land with elk or deer for at least 4 years
to see whether they become infected, Bates said. But that would be expensive
and there's no money available to do it, she said, nor is there any provision
to compensate farmers prohibited from raising crops. She refused to identify
any of the farms. But elk farmer Dale Alsager, from near Maidstone, Saskatchewan,
said he lives near one of them. Owners have been left with no way out,
he said. Rather than leave them in limbo, he said, the food inspection
agency should eliminate the possibility of the disease re-emerging on their
land. And they should be compensated for being unable to grow crops, he
added. Alsager is among a group of hard-hit Alberta and Saskatchewan game
farmers who are suing the federal government for damages for having encouraged
them to get into game farming.
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- Since chronic wasting disease was identified in Saskatchewan
and Alberta, prices for farmed elk and deer have collapsed. South Korea
halted imports of elk products from North America, and the US halted sales
of trophy deer and elk to US hunt farms. Saskatchewan has barred imports
of male Alberta deer and elk to its hunt farms. Some drought-stricken farmers
short of feed can't even give their deer or elk away.
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- http://www.canada.com/edmonton/edmontonjournal/
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- ProMED-mail <promed@promedmail.org>
-
- [If it is thought that "contaminated" ground
might (note I write "might" not "may") play a part
in the epidemiology of CWD, and possibly BSE, these ranches, if nothing
else, provide a field opportunity for testing this hypothesis, as well
as the bovine risk, if the provincial government is going to deny the owners
the opportunity of using their land commercially. There is always more
to such events than is reported, however. - Mod.MHJ]
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-
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- Patricia A. Doyle, PhD Please visit my "Emerging
Diseases" message board at: http://www.clickitnews.com/emergingdiseases/index.shtml
Zhan le Devlesa tai sastimasa Go with God and in Good Health
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