Don 't Get Wasted By Chronic Wasting Disease

Let’s take chicken farming as an example. Chickens are injected with growth hormones to make their breasts bigger for human consumption. The film showed chickens that were abnormally large. These modified chickens can only walk a few steps before having to sit back down because they can’t carry their own weight for too long. Some farmers will recycle the dead carcasses of the animals into the feed for herbivores on the farm. So plant eating animals will be eating the meat of a dead carcass. Animals could get sick or contract a disease from the dead animals. This infection would soon get

Proteinaceous Infectious Particles, commonly known as Prions, are extremely rare misfolds of the protein PrPc, which cause fatally neurodegenerative diseases, and are theorized to be infectious only by the protein itself (U.S National Library of Medicine, 1998). This “protein-only theory” is still heavily debated today, as some scientists deny the theory, and there isn’t a significant amount of evidence on each side to qualify the theory or disprove it (Soto, C. 2011). The base “Prion” protein is encoded in the gene PRNP, while being non-infectious. Prions are most commonly found in human prion diseases, but they can also be in other animals in the form of Mad Cow Disease and Chronic Wasting Disease, classified as Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathies

The rise of meat consumption in the United States has resulted in many large-scale animal agricultural practices operating all over the country. The hog industry, in particular, is highly concentrated in eastern North Carolina. This industry has proven to be problematic because of hazards to the environment and public health. The negative mental and physical health impacts associated with living near hog farm operations in North Carolina is largely felt by low-income minority groups, who suffer greatly from this environmental injustice.

Humans have to deal with many different diseases and the ones most disliked are the ones with no cures. Like cancer, transmissible spongiform encephalopathies have no cure, but they are more rare. These diseases are prion diseases which cause the brain to deteriorate. Prions are proteins that sometimes behave like viruses, which mean that they should have some form of nucleic acid, but since they don’t, they cause abnormalities. The nervous system contains many normal prions, but when an abnormal prion comes along, it transforms all the normal prions into abnormal ones. Bovine spongiform encephalopathy is found in cattle, but it can be transmitted to humans.

The problem with the hog farms is the inefficient disposal of the waste. There are 10 million hogs in North

What is the significance to your local community and the state community in relation to the disease?

Our initial purpose of researching this topic has been inspired by the growing concern for the outbreak of Mad Cow Disease and it's various forms. We believe that it is imperative that we take our research and implement it to others along with facts in order to generate concern for other countries regulations, United States regulations, health concerns and economical awareness.

To avoid the death of the entire herd, it is important for the farmer to be able to identify the symptoms and confirm whether or not CWD is present. If any of the deer test positive, the farmer should put those animals down. This will not only stop the spread of CWD, but it will also stop the animals from suffering as it can take a long time for them to finally expire after getting this disease. Unfortunately, it is hard to tell whether an animal is infected with CWD, since it could take up to as much as 18 months for the disease to disable the central nervous system of the deer. Of course, it can set in sooner or later, but with a deer infected for such a long time, it could lead to the owner having to put down the rest of his animals due to possible contamination.

In addition to the cervid species in which chronic waste disease can occur in wide variety of other animals. These other animals include monkeys, sheep, cattle, prairie voles, mice, and ferrets. Environmental transmission has been linked to contact with infected bodily fluids and tissues. Once the prions are in the environment chronic waste disease prions may remain infectious for many years. Thus, Decomposition of the disease carcasses, infected gut piles left by hunter, as well as urine, saliva, feces, and antler velvet of infected individuals that are deposited in the environment.

Scrapie was first discovered in Great Britain in the late 1900’s. The first case of scrapie in the United States was found in Michigan in 1947 when the flock owner had imported sheep of British origin several years prior. Since then scientists have researched to find the cause of the scrapie agent that are classified as transmissible spongiform encephalopathy. At the present, scientists have presented three main theories that explain why the scrapie agent holds a dangerous threat against its host and how it elicits its symptoms. Scientists are finding genetic alternatives to prevent and dampen the spread of scrapie within sheep and goat flocks. They use methods such as tatoing and genetic

As stated previously, the accurate and factual information regarding Chronic Wasting Disease is important to further gain an understanding among the many stakeholders of the degree of risks of CWD and more so, to gain support for CWD management. The failure to keep Texas Landowners, hunters and many other groups informed of the CWD with most recent facts could impact how these individuals see the disease management strategies (CWD Management Plan, 2015).

Transmissible spongiform encephalopathies (TSEs) are neurodegenerative diseases that are thought to be caused by the misfolding of prion proteins. Prions are able to replicate in the absence of nucleic acids. TSEs include: scrapie, bovine spongiform encephalopathy, Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, kuru, Gerstmann-Straussler-Scheinker disease, and Fatal Familial Insomnia. They can affect many different animals, including humans. Currently, there are no ways to diagnose, treat, or cure TSEs, as much more research is needed before these diseases are completely understood.

When most people think of international issues, they think of global warming, war, natural disasters, and the like. Aside from those of us involved in the animal rescue system, hardly anyone would think of animal overpopulation as an international issue in the same way that other problems are. The opinion of the general public notwithstanding, there are few issues as universal to different communities around the world as the problem of too many pets with too few homes. Animal overpopulation rears its ugly head from Fort Collins to Mumbai, and the scale of the suffering that it causes for these animals is correspondingly tremendous.

Can you imagine the impact of an always fatal disease on a population? Chronic Wasting Disease, or CWD for short is a prime example in the whitetail deer herd. CWD is a fatal neurological disease known as a type of transmissible spongiform encephalopathies (TSEs). In deer this disease causes a characteristic spongy degeneration of the brains of infected animals, resulting in emaciation, excessive drinking and urination, abnormal behavior, loss of bodily functions, and death (Witkowski 3). As a result, the whitetail deer population has been greatly impacted, but how detrimental has CWD really been on the population and what exactly is this disease.

As a result animals suffer and die due to the lack of proper medical attention.