Vakkotaur

While the news from North Korea is something to be concerned about, there's another story that isn't getting much attention. There is a disease similar to Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy (BSE or "mad cow disease") in deer, elk, and moose: Chronic Wasting Disease or CWD. The last few years during the deer hunting season this has gotten some attention and tests were done of brain or spinal tissue. This was to get an idea of how far the disease spread. Along with that came warnings to avoid brain or spinal tissue, to avoid or at least limit the possibility of infection with the disease-causing prions. A prion is an abnormal bit of protein that causes things not to work right, and has the ability to make a similar normal protein also go abnormal. It's not known for sure that CWD can spread to humans, but there's no sense in taking chances, so it is assumed that it is possible.

According to a Colorado State University study, that won't help. CWD can be spread by saliva and by blood. It now seems that no tissue of an infected animal is free of the prions.

Venison anyone?