CWD confirmed in Kentucky

[BenAllgood]

KDFWR just announced a confirmed case of CWD in Ballard County, Kentucky. It was a 2.5yo hunter harvested buck.

https://fw.ky.gov/News/Pages/Chronic-wasting-disease-confirmed-in-Kentucky-for-first-time.aspx

 

[yoderjac]

Yep. It has been slowly marching through VA from a WV hotspot; Likely a deer farm.

 

[deer patch]

If you keep testing for something long enough, you’re going to prove it’s there. My belief is that it’s been here for a very long time but we haven’t been testing for it until recently.

 

[yoderjac]

If you keep testing for something long enough, you’re going to prove it’s there. My belief is that it’s been here for a very long time but we haven’t been testing for it until recently.

There is clear epidemiological data that shows it came from out west and infected new areas through penned deer. It is a prion disease and the underlying prions can live for a very long time and have probably been around for a very long time.

We can probably slow the progress through sound management practices, but unless there is some kind of technology breakthrough, I doubt we will ever eliminate it.

It is a scary disease because it is closely related to CJD in humans. Fortunately, there is no confirmed cases of it jumping the species barrier into humans.