Examples of References Used in the Research Article Above and Related Research
Possible Origins of Chronic Wasting Disease, DeerFarmer.com
... A state Division of Wildlife biologist believes a nutritional study he conducted with deer, sheep and goats in the late 1960s might have been the genesis of chronic wasting disease. Gene Schoonveld suspects some of the sheep in his study had scrapie, a relative of chronic wasting disease. Some of the deer might have become infected with scrapie, which then mutated into CWD and spread to other deer... he said if the sheep had scrapie, it might have “jumped” from the sheep and mutated in deer as CWD. The deer and sheep were penned together from 1968 to 1971 ...
[in the article Schoonveld notes that the sheep came from a scrapie project but didn't show signs of the disease at the time ... some does in the project were captured from the wild and released when the research project was over] ...
Transmission of scrapie and sheep-passaged bovine spongiform encephalopathy prions to transgenic mice expressing elk prion protein. The Journal of General Virology, 04 Mar 2009, 90(Pt 4):1035-1047 DOI: 10.1099/vir.0.007500-0
... scrapie occurs relatively frequently: at least 1117 cases were diagnosed between 1947 and 1992 and, since the start of the regulatory scrapie slaughter surveillance programme in the USA in 2003, 359 scrapie cases from among 168 593 screened animals have been reported (USDA, 2008; Wineland et al., 1998)... Considering that some sheep or sheep-passaged prion strains can be transmitted to Tg(ElkPrP) mice, it is surprising that CWD cases have not been reported elsewhere in the world where cervids and scrapie-infected sheep coexist...
CWD – FACTS from the Farm! StopCWD,org
... The first cases of classic "chronic wasting" appeared in the late 1960's in captive wild deer held in interchangeable deer research facilities operated by Colorado State University (CSU) and the Colorado Division of Wildlife (CDOW) at Ft Collins, Larimer County, Colorado. Wild deer cases were not observed until the late 1970's and then only with in a 50-kilometers (usually within a 5-km radius) of the research facilities even though sampling occurred outside that radius...
Fire May Be the Only Remedy for a Plague Killing Deer and Elk June 26, 2017 Chronic Wasting Disease, New York Times
... Scientists long suspected that deer and related species developed chronic wasting disease by picking up scrapie from sheep flocks kept at Colorado State University. The disease then turned up in other states and Canada as animals were shipped to private game farms... [this article also refers to the Norway outbreak, which is also suspected as resulting from transporting deer or parts, the Dr. Zabel works at Colorado State] ...
Chronic wasting disease implications for humans are alarming December 17, 2017 Wisconsin, Madison.com
... a captive herd of ungulates with CWD had been killed in Colorado. The land had been burned, tilled, poisoned and left fallow for years. When a new herd was put into the enclosure, they contracted CWD from the land...
Chronic Wasting Disease: Coming to a Deer Population Near You March 11, 2018 Sierra Magazine
... included in the comments for this article: "Professor Adriano Aguzzi, an expert on Chronic Wasting Recently made this comment in a Facebook discussion about the disease: ''it pains me to no end to even contemplate the possibility, but it seems entirely plausible that CWD originated from scientist-made spread of scrapie from sheep to deer in the Colorado research facility. If true, a terrible burden for those involved.''
Chronic wasting disease linked to Fort Collins for 50 years August 23, 2018 Colorado, The Coloradoan
... he was conducting experiments on mule deer in those pens to help them survive starvation during harsh winters ... about a dozen mule deer were brought in from various areas of Colorado... the deer might have already been infected... the disease might have crossed species. CSU was conducting scrapie research on domestic sheep and the sheep and deer were together in pens at times... [Gene Schoonveld, retired Colorado Division of Wildlife senior wildlife biologist] ...
Colorado dementia experiment in humans mad-cow.org
... The Colorado facility was evidently totally contaminated over at least a 12 year period, with 54/67 deer affected, at ages 2.5-4, during 1974-79. It is disgusting to see fawn after fawn, year after year, brought in to meet its doom. Ironically, the purpose of the facility is experimental nutritional, metabolic and disease studies of deer and other non-domesticated rumants -- how could meaningful experiments be conducted in such a barbaric setting? ...
Disease Threatening Deer Population Has Spread to 26 States February 7, 2019 By Cameron McWhirter, WSJ.com
... Early on, every case of CWD could be traced back to ... the Front Range experimental station in Fort Collins... Infected subjects were unwittingly sent to other states and then released into wild populations. Although it was accidental, it is still noteworthy that wildlife agencies tasked to protect deer unleashed the worst deer epidemic in history...
Minnesota needs to fight CWD January 15, 2017 La Crosse Tribune
... CWD most likely originated from sheep scrapies in a Colorado research facility in the late 1960s. Intentional and unintentional movement of CWD-infected animals has distributed the disease and it was found in Wisconsin in 2002...
Chronic wasting disease linked to Fort Collins for 50 years August 30, 2018 The Coloradan
When the disease was discovered, he was conducting experiments on mule deer in those pens to help them survive starvation during harsh winters. He said about a dozen mule deer were brought in from various areas of Colorado. He believes the deer might have already been infected... CSU was conducting scrapie research on domestic sheep and the sheep and deer were together in pens at times...
Paper that first identified Chronic Wasting
The Challenge of CWD: Insidious and Dire 2017 Living Legacy White Paper Series, Alliance for Public Wildlife
... By 2005, based on extensive documentation of presence (or absence), growth, spread, and persistence, it had become clear that CWD could not possibly be a longstanding disease of North American deer ... Leading experts Beth Williams, Tom Thorne, and Michael Miller postulated that: “It is possible, though never proven, that deer came into contact with scrapie infected sheep either on shared pastures or in captivity somewhere along the front range of the Rocky Mountains...
CWD Part One Boone and Crocket Club
... the widely held belief that all CWD occurrences can be traced back to a single Colorado research facility has precluded wildlife and animal health professionals from considering that some outbreaks may be arising from unrecognized exposure events that occur repeatedly over time...
Montana's game farm industry| An indictment for abolishment 2001 Gary R. Holmquist, The University of Montana
... the Colorado Division of Wildlife set out plans to depopulate the core mule deer herds around the Ft. Collins Research facility by more than 40% during the year 2000 big game hunting season. Despite these occurrences in wild populations, there is ample evidence that CWD is appearing much more frequently in facilities where animals that are confined to small areas, such as game farms and not in the wild... (page 59)
Cousin to mad-cow disease hits deer, elk March 16, 1998 High Country News
... "That's how scrapie got spread around," says Pringle, who operates the Mad Cow Disease home page for the Sperling Foundation. "They brought in (infected) Suffolk sheep from England (in the 1940s). They were buying and selling them all over, then pretty soon you have it in 39 states."...
White-Tailed Deer are Susceptible to the Agent of Classical Sheep Scrapie after Experimental Oronasal Exposure 2022 The Journal of Infectious Diseases
... Classical scrapie is a prion disease of sheep and goats ... We inoculated WTD (n = 5) ...with the classical scrapie agent from goats (n = 6)... All deer exposed to the agent of classical scrapie from sheep accumulated PrPSc. PrPSc was detected in lymphoid tissues at preclinical time points, and deer necropsied after 28 months post-inoculation had clinical signs, spongiform lesions, and widespread PrPSc in neural and lymphoid tissues...
Scrapie versus Chronic Wasting Disease in White-Tailed Deer Volume 30, Number 8—August 2024 Emerging Infectious Diseases
... White-tailed deer are susceptible to scrapie (WTD scrapie) after oronasal inoculation with the classical scrapie agent from sheep. Deer affected by WTD scrapie are difficult to differentiate from deer infected with chronic wasting disease (CWD). To assess the transmissibility of the WTD scrapie agent and tissue phenotypes when further passaged in white-tailed deer, we oronasally inoculated wild-type white-tailed deer with WTD scrapie agent. We found that WTD scrapie and CWD agents were generally similar, although some differences were noted...
Evidence that sheep scrapie was introduced to America from Europe
Sheep scrapie and deer rabies in England prior to 1800 - Prion, 2023
Eighteenth-century England witnessed the emergence of two neurological diseases in animals. Scrapie, a transmissible spongiform encephalopathy, is a fatal neurodegenerative disease of sheep and goats that appears in classical and atypical forms. Reports of classical scrapie in continental Europe with described symptoms date back to 1750 in what is now western Poland. However, two major outbreaks of scrapie appeared in England prior to the 1800s. References to a sheep disease with a resemblance to scrapie first appear in Southwestern England between 1693 and 1722 and in the East Midlands between 1693 and 1706. Concurrent with the descriptions of scrapie in sheep was a neurological disease of deer first appearing in the East of England. Two 18th-century writers remarked on the symptomatic similarities between the sheep and deer neurological diseases ...
Scrapie: An overview of the disease and the National Scrapie Eradication Program Prepared by the Scrapie Management Team. USDA, APHIS, Veterinary Services. September, 2012
... Classical scrapie was not always present in the United States. The disease was first observed in a sheep
flock in Michigan in 1947. It is believed that the flock became infected through the import of British
origin sheep via Canada. In 1952 classical scrapie was identified in two additional States ... The first case of scrapie in a goat in the United States was reported in 1969, in a goat that had
transferred from its herd of origin in Missouri to the scrapie experimental station in Mission, Texas.
Although the goat was diagnosed with scrapie in Mission, epidemiological analysis suggested that the
animal became infected around the time of its birth in its herd of origin...
Fort Collins calls the idea that chronic wasting originated at their facility "an urban legend"
In this BBC program [see Episode 10 "Zombie Deer" in the program "The Cows are Mad"] which considers the Fort Collins origination theory, people at Fort Collins were contacted in Fall of 2023 for their perspective. They characterized the theory as "urban legend." While solid evidence points to Fort Collins as the origin, their captive deer facility was certainly a super spreader event. By denying their involvement, the research facility downplays the significance of captive deer facilities in the transmission process, minimizing the need to be particularly concerned about captive deer facilities. As described in the paper above scientists at Fort Collins suggest they may have brought infected deer into their facility when they captured deer north of Fort Collins to be used for research. These deer may have been grazing in the same area as sheep with scrapie prior to 1967. However the number of sheep with scrapie at that time was very low.
The rationale for ridding U.S. of scrapie April 15, 2002 American Veterinary Medical Foundation (AVMF)
... Scrapie is uncommon in the United States. The disease has been diagnosed in only about 1,600 sheep and goats since it was first found here in 1947...
As reported in the article below, the significance of captive deer facilities in the transmission of CWD is clear.
Texas Parks and Wildlife opens more mandatory CWD check stations as deer season begins October 28, 2023, Texas Public Radio
...There are cases of both free ranging deer and captive deer facilities. The majority of them at this time are around captive deer facilities... Ben Olsen, a wildlife health specialist in Texas Parks and Wildlife Big game program..,
Officials respond to questions about chronic wasting disease detection December 23, 2023 Texas, Jacksonville Progress
... TPWD says more than 600 CWD positives have been confirmed in Texas since the initial discovery, and that most of the positives are tied to whitetail breeding facilities and release sites. TPWD Big Game program leader Alan Cain says CWD has been documented in 28 Texas breeding facilities...
Texas Parks and Wildlife addresses increase in Chronic Wasting Disease among state deer population January 4, 2024,KVII
... First detected in Texas in 2012, CWD has since manifested in 624 documented cases statewide, with 181 cases reported in 2023 alone... the state has reported an over 25% increase in positive cases, with a notable 73% of cases originating from high-fenced areas..,
Help Prevent Chronic Wasting Disease in New Hampshire September 26, 2024 New Hampshire Fish and Game
... In 2018, a red deer from a captive facility in Quebec tested positive for chronic wasting disease (CWD). This remains the closest confirmed case of CWD to the New Hampshire border. Movement of captive cervids (members of the deer family including moose, deer, elk, and caribou, as well as any species of captive deer) remains the number one threat in the spread of CWD ...
A twisted protein sheds light on chronic wasting disease in deer November 12, 2024 Science News
... The first detailed structure of an infectious prion that causes chronic wasting disease, or CWD, reveals features that could help guide vaccine development or explain why the illness hasn’t yet made the leap to people, researchers report October 24 in Acta Neuropathologica...
Possible Documented Jump to Humans
Two Hunters from the Same Lodge Afflicted with Sporadic CJD: Is Chronic Wasting Disease to Blame? - Neurology, 2024
... In 2022, a 72-year-old man with a history of consuming meat from a CWD-infected deer population presented with rapid-onset confusion and aggression. His friend, who had also eaten venison from the same deer population, recently died of CJD, raising concerns about a potential link between CWD and human prion disease ...
Evidence of Other Origins of CWD
Reinterpreting Chronic Wasting Disease Emergence in the USA in Light of Historical Surveillance Limitations - The Journal of Wildlife Diseases, 2024
... Although most CWD foci in the US were first detected in 2002 or after, the data presented here and elsewhere suggest it is plausible that an unknown number of these—some established perhaps decades earlier—were already present but had simply eluded detection. These data
highlight uncertainty regarding timelines for CWD
emergence in the US...
Variation in the prion protein gene (PRNP) open reading frame sequence in French cervids J Laubier, A Van De Wiele, A Barboiron, D Laloë… - Veterinary Research, 2024
... It was first described in a mule deer (Odocoileus hemionus) at a research centre in Colorado in 1967 and in wild deer in 1981 but recent studies have suggested that CWD had already been present for ten to 20 years prior to its initial identification [8].
Reference 8 is: EFSA Panel on Biological Hazards (BIOHAZ), Koutsoumanis K, Allende A, Alvarez-Ordoñez A, Bolton D, Bover-Cid S, Chemaly M, Davies R, De Cesare A, Herman L, Hilbert F, Lindqvist R, Nauta M, Peixe L, Skandamis P, Suffredini E, Miller MW, Mysterud A, Nöremark M, Simmons M, Tranulis MA, Vaccari G, Viljugrein H, Ortiz-Pelaez A, Ru G (2023) Monitoring of chronic wasting disease (CWD) (IV). EFSA J Eur Food Saf Auth 21:e07936. https://doi.org/10.2903/j.efsa.2023.7936
Here is what they actually said in the article: One likely outcome of focusing detection on standard thresholds (e.g. 1% design prevalence) in North America has been that CWD may have been present for 10–20 years before the first case was identified in a cervid population unit. An even longer period of time likely would to be needed for a CWD outbreak to expand across an entire political jurisdiction (e.g. a state, province or country).
