The Truth About CWD… Not Hardly!!!

     A small town reporter who likely knows nothing about deer or the TSE disease, conducted an interview recently with the Missouri Department of Conservation’s Jasmine Batten, Wildlife Disease Coordinator. The interviewer didn’t know enough about the disease to follow up on misleading answers.  But here is what came of it.

Ms. Batten….“In 2017,  researchers from Canada and Germany announced that they gave Macaque monkeys (often used as a model for humans in research, from Northern Africa and Southern Europe)  CWD after feeding them meat from CWD-positive deer and elk. They have not concluded that study. It is ongoing. Research from other groups since that time have found different results.

Following recommendations from human health experts, hunters should take minor precautions: wear gloves when processing deer and not handle brain or spinal cord tissue.”

Dablemont….This is a very deceptive answer and Ms. Batten knew it.  Some macaque monkeys fed meat from a TSE infected deer did not get the chronic wasting disease.  Then they fed another group venison from CWD infected deer and ALL OF THEM GOT THE PRION DISEASE.    She didn’t want to say that of course…but everyone should know it.  As for that study being ongoing… that is a little deceptive too.  Studies like that one are continued for years.   They want to find out if different strains of CWD exist.  And by the way, the center for Disease Control and other researchers say that besides wearing gloves and handling brain and spine.. ‘Don’t grind up meat with lymph nodes or cut into any bones or eat bone marrow.’

Ms. Batten…..“The CDC actually hasn’t made any changes to their recommendations regarding CWD, though they did strengthen their recommendations a bit in 2017. They have long recommended that hunters avoid eating deer that are known to be infected with the disease. From what I am aware, there have been no new warnings released. There has been no new evidence brought forward. To my knowledge and all my colleagues knowledge, there are no new results out there, no new research.”

Dablemont…Again to say there has been no new research done since 2017 is just ridiculous… she knows better.

Interviewer question….Is there any evidence that people feeding deer to grow horns in captive deer has contributed to this?

Ms. Batten…”No, not to our knowledge. There is no evidence of that being a link.”

Dablemont….CWD in most all Midwestern states originated in such captive deer pens, and why she would say that I have no idea…. Those deer pens feed deer meat and bone by-products, to grow big antlers so they can sell the deer to trophy hunters for thousands.   That feed, given to cattle in England, is what brought about the mad-cow disease, which is also a prion disease known in that TSE group.  The first deer in Missouri found to be dying of mad-deer disease (CWD or TSE, whichever you want to call it) were found very close to such captive deer growing businesses, within just a few miles.  In some such businesses, more than half the deer in the enclosure had the prions.  In an interview last year, a researcher said that in one Iowa captive deer farm had nearly 200 deer in a farm of 260 with the prions.   Why Batten would say such a thing puzzles me.  Does she just not know or is it some attempt to conceal more truth?

Interviewer question…You have a lot of deer donated to Share the Harvest. Is there any concern that somebody will unknowingly donate a CWD infected deer?

Ms. Batten….“Absolutely. We require testing of deer donated to Share the Harvest from counties where CWD has been detected.”

Dablemont….This is tremendously deceiving… share your harvest program originated so that trophy hunters could just hunt for antlers and wouldn’t be guilty of wanton waste of venison.  Batten says deer meat donated to the share your harvest program is tested…WHEN IT COMES FROM A COUNTY WHERE THE DISEASE HAS BEEN FOUND!   How many deer may there be out there with CWD-TSE that are not in those counties?  Share your harvest venison is taken to a variety of processing places, privately run.  How many such places process untested deer?  They cut through bone and spine, and the deer they just cut up before the one you get to eat…what if it had CWD?  How would anyone know if prions from a diseased deer might remain on saws, tables, etc?  If you eat any Share Your Harvest Venison, or any venison given to you by someone else…. You are taking a gamble.   The risk may be slim, but it is indeed a risk and the MDC will never let you know that… because it would destroy their ability to protect trophy hunters and the tremendous amount of money they provide.