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<blockquote data-quote="Allen" data-source="post: 350864" data-attributes="member: 389">I think there are people who are truly worried with the effect CWD has on the deer population, and there are others who are truly worried that this will eventually become a human health issue.&nbsp; Let's face it, there is no cure for any of the brain wasting diseases whether it's CJD, BSE, or CWD.&nbsp; At this point we know two of those affect humans and the 3rd one is similar enough to the other two for biologists (prionologist, is there such a thing) to worry about it's ability to change just enough to infect humans.&nbsp; To date I am not aware of any evidence that it has made the leap to a human infection, but let's contemplate that for a minute.For one, we know that facilities where CWD infections have occurred are fundamentally impossible to clean to the point animals introduced afterwards were unable to avoid infection.&nbsp; So this prion thing has some lengthy and undefined shelf life in nature.&nbsp; Deer also feed on our crops, and given the size of a prion...I'd have to think plants will have some uptake of the prions as diseased animals die and are returned to the soil and water.&nbsp;&nbsp; That means there is a theoretical pathway to infecting even vegans.If, or when, this disease does make the leap to humans, what do we think the government will do?&nbsp; I suspect our non-hunting city folks would call for extermination of the deer population.&nbsp; Kind of an apocalyptic scenario, but is the risk really zero?</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Allen, post: 350864, member: 389"] I think there are people who are truly worried with the effect CWD has on the deer population, and there are others who are truly worried that this will eventually become a human health issue. Let's face it, there is no cure for any of the brain wasting diseases whether it's CJD, BSE, or CWD. At this point we know two of those affect humans and the 3rd one is similar enough to the other two for biologists (prionologist, is there such a thing) to worry about it's ability to change just enough to infect humans. To date I am not aware of any evidence that it has made the leap to a human infection, but let's contemplate that for a minute. For one, we know that facilities where CWD infections have occurred are fundamentally impossible to clean to the point animals introduced afterwards were unable to avoid infection. So this prion thing has some lengthy and undefined shelf life in nature. Deer also feed on our crops, and given the size of a prion...I'd have to think plants will have some uptake of the prions as diseased animals die and are returned to the soil and water. That means there is a theoretical pathway to infecting even vegans. If, or when, this disease does make the leap to humans, what do we think the government will do? I suspect our non-hunting city folks would call for extermination of the deer population. Kind of an apocalyptic scenario, but is the risk really zero? [/QUOTE]

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