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smokey's Link
Hopefully, this will come to be.
I sure hope this is true! Perhaps the "magic bullet" to eradicate CWD has been discovered! If so, the speaker was correct, the Dr. will win a Nobel prize for this! Maybe we all can begin to relax a bit. More news to come I am sure.
Thanks for sharing Smokey
Very bold predictions by the folks in PA, that said Dr Bastian from LSU is well known and I have read some of his findings linking Spiroplasma Bacteria to TSE's not Prions back to the early 80's. His work on TSE's is hardly new, his theory and main stream acceptance is. The predictions of a cure for CWD have been circulating for a number of years, often times dismissed by other experts in the field.
PA has a very aggressive timeline in the first 3 years (1-Year= Hunter Field Test Kit, 2-Year = Injectable Vaccine for Captive Deer, 3-Year = Oral Vaccine for Wild Deer) as well as a ten year plan for humans and other species of animals. Vaccines have proven effective with similar bacterial diseases in humans, and captive animals so it will be interesting to see how this will work on a wide spread and wild animal population.
I am curious to see how other scientists, wildlife biologists and state agencies will react to this theory since most all are heavily dedicated to the Prion Theory, with deer eradication as the most effective way to slow the spread of CWD. It now appears that the most effective way to get this oral vaccine to the wild deer herd will be through some type of supplemental feeding so I anticipate the discussion to be robust.
For me the jury is still out on the Magic Bullet Cure for CWD, but it just goes to show that not all science no matter how well intended, how many millions of dollars you spend may or may no be correct.
Right now we have two CWD Camps, the Prion Theory and the Spiroplasma Bacteria Theory. So I am curious as to how the "New DNR" will react and what the CWD strategy will be in WI with these findings moving forward. Will we stay committed to the Prion Theroy and deer eradication or will we move to the Spiroplasma Bacteria Theory and look to vaccinate the wild deer herd? As Yogi Bera once said: "When you come to the fork in the road you take it".
I have posted a link to the TSE Research Center if you are interested in learning more on Dr Bastains Research.
http://tseresearchcenter.org/
Cracking the BSE/TSE code along with CWD is a huge finding. If what is true about current 15% misdiagnosis of Alzheimer’s is true, these findings are huge for mandkind.
The costs of BSE/TSE avoidance is a huge cost in pharmaceutical development. Now, this same development can be used to combat with a vaccine. Hope this research works out. Anti-vaxxers will be caught between a rock and a hard place.
Link to the TSE Research Center
I thought eliminating hunting was the only answer...
Imagine what this discovery is worth.....if it works?
Treefarm, anti-vaxxers scare me. A lot.
Reg...they should scare all of us. They are causing resurgence of diseases that were thought controlled. Anti-vaxxers have only put fear amongst others who are not educated in the science. Social media can spread unfounded fear. Kinda like watching Marcus Welby MD t.v. Show and thinking “OMG, I have 3 months to live, I have that disease”.
I spoke to a friend in PA last night and he directed me to an interesting twist in the fight against CWD as the PA Game Commission and the PA State Department of Agriculture immediately came out against DR Bastains findings with the following: “to make it clear that decades of research have provided abundant evidence that prions, or misfolded proteins, are the infectious agent of CWD.” they further added; "the one thing about Dr. Bastian’s research is that no one has been able to replicate it. No wildlife agency accepts the bacteria theory".
So we will see where this all takes us, however its clear that Dr Bastain and his research, won't be getting any help from state wildlife leaders in PA, or anywhere for that matter any time soon.
HF43
Very controversial. If it were true, a anti bacterial solution in mineral lick blocks would have been marketed by now and legal. They would sell like hot cakes.
Sure would be nice if this were true. There had to be dozens of labs trying to verify this for at least the last decade. Why Louisiana? Why Pennsylvania? UW Madison used to be one of the premier research universities in the country. Wisconsin should have been out in front on CWD research 15 years ago given our huge stake on the issue.
Sag- I know recently that research funding has been cut at Madison. I think they are starting to find more ways to obtain research funding. But my guess is if funds were down, they chose to do research on more serious concerns. Just an opinion though...
Yes, exactly .... a missed opportunity. Number one trophy deer state. A world class research university. Hundreds of millions $ in deer hunting economic stimulation. A working/functional government would have brought all this together to benefit Wisconsin. Pay it forward, investing in Wisconsin.
Last count WI DNR had spent over $50,000,000.00 on CWD. Not sure what the University spent however I bet its well north of $15,000,000.00. In my mind that's a lost opportunity. I would agree that it would be beneficial that groups would work together for the common good. I do remember a group of Canadian researchers (brought to WI by the SCI Chapters) who came down and met with the DNR about a vaccine they were developing. The Canadians were ridiculed in the WI Outdoor media and their work was dismissed by the DNR. CWD research funding is nothing more than a pissing match between government agencies and research facilities as "their" research is vital to "their" very survival. CWD research at this stage is nothing more than a theory in my opinion and I must say I am not sure which camp I fall into. I do know one thing and that is I do not believe that the sky is falling and that we need to eradicate as many deer as possible so that they die a certain death before they might catch CWD.
HF43
I believe I posted this before. Research from the UW. Stacie Robinson and co-authors from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and University of Alberta-Edmonton reported in the journal "Ecological Applications" that 41% of deer from the CWD core area of Wisconsin demonstrated resistance to CWD. Not only were the resistant deer four times less likely to contract CWD, but if they did become infected, advanced infection of the brain stem was 12 times lower, and they lived 49% longer than the disease-susceptible deer.
Furthermore, due to lowered infection and mortality, deer with the resistant genotypes had a significant reproductive advantage. This advantage would drive natural selection toward a predominantly CWD-resistant population within 250 years at low infection rates and within 50 years at high infection rates.
The authors stated these genetic differences in disease dynamics have not been previously documented, accounted for in management planning or considered in current CWD models.
These genetic resistance findings were not available when Illinois instituted its sharpshooting program but certainly should be considered now. Culling randomly removes CWD-resistant deer as well as reducing the selective pressure toward resistance caused by the diseased deer. Although evolutionary change is slow by our standards, nature has done a better job than people ever will at building a better deer. High CWD infection rates in some areas of the state translate to greater selective pressure and evolution toward disease resistance.
The bottom line: Let Mother Nature's passive plan of natural selection already in progress control CWD. Culling by sharpshooters and aggressive herd reduction may reap hypothesized temporary benefits but will slow natural selection and permanent evolutionary change toward CWD-resistant deer.
On Jan. 22, the state Natural Resources Board approved recommendations from the Deer Trustees Report including what has erroneously been called "passive management." That same night in Mount Horeb, where the costly CWD war in Wisconsin all began, I met with a group of hunters and we rejoiced: Aggressive measures to control CWD finally ended. Mother Nature and her deer had won.
"Last count WI DNR had spent over $50,000,000.00 on CWD"
That's a lot of money spent to figure out basically nothing. Perhaps next time they can burn through 100,000,000 and figure out twice as much.
But at least the DNR was successful at putting the fun back into hunting. ;-)
Would it not be funny if the only way to get the “cure drug” to the deer was through feeding the? Baiting could be a good thing again.??. I had to!??
Perhaps with the " Zombie Deer " hitting most major headlines this week it will stimulate more access to private lands where the owners might want the herds controlled, rather than not hunted. More support for hunting. One of many potential ramifications, of which most are negative.
HNF43, you are correct. It was a group from Saskatchewan and it sounded as if they had been making some inroads with their study. This was about 5 or 6 years ago and at that time they were successful in genetically altering mice so that they could contract CWD. This was done as mice were a much cheaper species to study (amazing that they could do that). WI wanted nothing to do with them (those grant dollars are most important). Last I had heard, they had moved on to sheep and then cervids. They did have study populations of deer and elk at ranches in Colorado. Any coincidence that WON ridiculed them, in lock step with our DNR at that time?
Great post Hoot! Great post! I've been in the thick of it all along. I took the aggressive approach simply because I was younger, and killing was where I was at as a hunter. The passive approach seems the only way, and ironically, that is where I'm at as a hunter. Hunting has never been better....period!
M B: Zombie deer "chicken little" mania will not open up our property It will take an act of God himself to do that. Been there done that been screwed by to many. Bought it, pay for it yearly, we will do as we wish. All the fake news in the world won't change it.
I do know there are way too many deer on a lot of property's in the southern half of the state. I know people who go looking for ag tags and said the property's they go to are unbelievable as far as the amount of deer. He described it as when you start seeing deer moving, the whole woods is moving. You through in a transmissible disease like this and you have problems. Then through in the mix these damn game farms and genetically altered deer.
Live2hunt All living creatures are genetically altered. Farmers know how to breed the best to the best. Just imagine if farmers were to begin selecting for body size. We could eventually have deer the size of elk. :) The attached link doesn't relate to game farms but, I thought it was interesting.
