Chronic Wasting and Us

Chronic Wasting is a wasting disease that is affecting our nations elk and deer herds. It is very similar to mad cow disease or bovine spongiform encephalopathy which is a brain wasting disease that affects Mule Deer, White Tail Deer, Rocky Mountain Elk, and Shiras Moose. Currently it is unknown whether it can infect cattle or humans but this is a possibility. The main worry with this disease is that it will eventually mutate and start to cross over from wild animals to domestic animals and humans. Especially with disease like the new strain of Swine Flu we need policies in place that can protect the populous from new diseases that could potentially kill tens of thousands of people.

Chronic wasting is worse than some other forms of brain wasting diseases because wild animals are free to roam wherever they like, unlike mad cow which can be contained in a certain area with all exposed animals be destroyed. This is much worse because the disease can spread very rapidly from one group of animals to another infecting a large range of animals over a rather short amount of time. Also if these animals come in contact with domestic animals and the disease mutates and jumps species it will rapidly infect the human food supply and potentially decimate our food sources. Right now they are not sure if the disease can jump to humans.

We are speeding this spread along by manipulating these species through concentration in artificial habitats such as food plots. These will concentrate game species in unnatural numbers and support a larger number of animals than would typically live in a given area. This close proximity not only increases predation rates but also increases the likelihood that disease will spread through herds, which in turn increases the likelihood that it will come in contact with domestic herds.