AR-News: [US] Chronic wasting disease spreads with ease
unclewolf at olypen.com Thu Sep 4 15:35:10 EDT 2003 Chronic
wasting disease spreads with ease Decades of culling and
containment may be needed. 4 September 2003 Chronic wasting
disease (CWD) is more infectious than was previously thought,
say US researchers. The finding suggests that tough long-term
measures are needed to contain the disease, perhaps involving
the deaths of thousands of North American deer. In an
experimental herd in Colorado, some 90% of animals succumbed to
the disease within four years, regardless of whether their
parents were infected or not. Infection is thought to spread in
urine, saliva or faeces, via routes such as shared scratching
posts or contaminated grazing land. At present, up to a tenth of
Colorado's 500,000 mule deer carry the disease. "Given enough
time, all of the deer here will succumb," says wildlife
veterinarian Mike Miller from the Wildlife Research Centre in
Fort Collins, Colorado, who studied transmission rates in