CALL IT DEADLY, CALL IT HARMLESS

DEAD FROM CWD

The deer disease that CAN  and HAS killed people in the Midwest. There is a LOT of information here and is a long read, but very enlightening and IMPORTANT.

Creutzfeldt-Jakob is the most common member of a family of disorders that affect people and animals called transmissible spongiform encephalopathies. The diseases eat holes in the brain, leaving it looking like a sponge (hence the name). The other human ailments include kuru, fatal familial insomnia and Gerstmann-Straussler-Scheinkerdisease.

In animals, the spongiform disorders include mad-cow disease and scrapie in sheep and goats. Another form, chronic wasting disease, is having a devastating effect on wild deer, elk and moose; it is highly contagious among the animals. In humans it is called Cruetzfeldt-Jakobs disease.

      In 2017, the Program known as ‘Share Your Harvest’ distributed perhaps tons of deer meat to the poor and needy throughout Missouri.  Other Midwestern states do the same.  That practice needs to stop immediately, and no one anywhere should ever ingest deer or elk meet from pen-raised animals.

      As a life-long deer hunter who has butchered and prepared his own deer meat for 40 years, I will never kill another deer unless it can be tested for what is called Chronic Wasting Disease, and will never again eat venison from any deer unless it HAS been tested for that disease by some group with solid science behind them that I can believe in.  That certainly will not be the Missouri Department of Conservation.

      Fearing the loss of millions of dollars, the Conservation Department has intentionally mislead and outright deceived, the hunters of this state by saying no one has ever been known to die of that disease.  Technically, they can get away with saying that.

      That is because the exact same disease, caused by ingested “prions” is called by a different name when it is found in humans.  It is called Cruetzfeldt-Jakob disease then.  In all creatures, and there are several, which are infected with the prions, the correct name for what kills them, including humans, is transmissible spongiform encephalopathy disease.  Doctors I have talked to tell me that they are still know too little about the disease and whether or not it has appeared in many deer hunters who have been misdiagnosed.

I want those who eat elk and venison to see why this is a big worry for all of us who hunt.  You can decide for yourself what many people much smarter than I have learned… in articles I have found over the past couple of months.  Read these and see if you want to believe a greedy and proven corrupt agency that stands to lose millions if deer hunters know the whole truth.

By Dr. Joseph Mercola

Chronic wasting disease (CWD) is a contagious neurological disease that is part of the transmissible spongiform encephalopathies (TSEs) disease family — the most notable member of which is bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE), also known as mad cow disease. Unlike BSE, which infects cattle, CWD affects deer, elk and moose.

"It causes a characteristic spongy degeneration of the brains of infected animals resulting in emaciation, abnormal behavior, loss of bodily functions and death," The Chronic Wasting Disease Alliance reports.¹ The symptoms are similar to those of mad cow disease, scrapie (a similar disease found in sheep and goats) and Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (CJD) in humans. The infectious agent thought to cause CWD and other TSEs is prions — an infectious type of protein known to cause neurodegeneration.

A human version of mad cow disease, known as variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (vCJD), can be caused by eating beef contaminated with brain, spinal cord or other central nervous system tissue from infected cattle.² This can occur in ground meat (including hot dogs, bologna, taco fillings and more), as it may become contaminated during the "extraction of the last bits of meat from cow carcasses," the Center for Food Safety stated.³

The question then, as CWD continues to spread across the U.S., is whether this disease may also jump to humans — and the Canadian government has recently issued a warning based on new research suggesting the answer is yes.

The Canadian Health Products and Food Branch (HPFB) issued an advisory in April 2017 warning of "potential human health risks from chronic wasting disease." The disease has been detected in cervids (mammals belonging to the deer family) in 24 U.S. states and two Canadian provinces to date, including in farmed elk and wild mule deer. The advisory states:⁴

"While extensive disease surveillance in Canada and elsewhere has not provided any direct evidence that CWD has infected humans, the potential for CWD to be transmitted to humans cannot be excluded. In exercising precaution, HPFB continues to advocate that the most prudent approach is to consider that CWD has the potential to infect humans."

The warning came on the heels of a study led by a Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) scientist, which found CWD was transmitted to macaque monkeys, which are the nonhuman primate species most closely related to humans that are still allowed to be used in research, via "both the intracranial and oral routes of exposure." Further, both brain and muscle tissue from infected animals were capable of transmitting disease.

In the ongoing study of 18 macaques, three of five monkeys fed infected white tail deer meat developed CWD over a three-year period. Two monkeys that had infected matter exposed to their brains also developed CWD.⁵

Based on this and other data, including a systematic literature review that included a study showing CWD could be transmitted to squirrel monkeys,⁶ the HPFB warned that although CWD may be "readily" transmitted to humans, "the species barrier is not absolute." They also included a list of the many possible routes of exposure to CWD for humans, especially among those who rely on deer meat as a regular food source:⁷

"Canadians may be exposed to cervids, and materials derived from cervids through a variety of sources, and routes of exposure, including in their diet and through the use of natural health products that contain antler velvet.

There is also the potential for Canadians to be exposed to cervids through farming (including veterinary services), slaughter, velvet harvest, as well as through field dressing of hunted animals, preparing trophies and/or the use of cervid-derived materials (e.g., urine) as hunting lures.

While monitoring and control programs are in place to reduce the likelihood that animals known to be infected with CWD reach the marketplace, the possibility cannot be excluded that some of these sources of exposure may be derived from animals with CWD. Cervid meat (venison) is available in many of the same cuts and processed meat products as for other meat products.

While consumption survey estimates for the general Canadian population … indicate that overall venison consumption is quite low, there are known subpopulations, including rural and Indigenous populations that have higher dietary exposures to this food. In addition, populations that rely on cervids as an important source of protein are more likely to hunt and/or consume wild cervids."

Are Rising Cases of Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease Due to CWD?

Meanwhile, cases of Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease have spiked 85 percent in the U.S. from 2002 to 2015, which is surprising since the natural variant of the disease is typically extremely rare. In Wisconsin, a 117 percent increase in cases was recorded since 2002 — all as rates of CWD continue to rise.⁸ Health officials have downplayed any connection, blaming it instead on an aging population and increased detection and conformation of Creutzfeldt-Jakob cases, but it cannot be ruled out.

Speaking to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) spokesperson Christine Pearson said, "While no human cases of CWD have been reported to date, the new [macaque] study findings raise concerns that people who hunt or consume meat from infected animals could be at risk for CWD infection." In response, they recommend not eating meat from infected deer or elk and having meat tested if it came from an area where known cases are present.

It's not unheard of that a form of TSE could mutate into one that could infect humans. This is what happened with mad cow disease in cattle, which first began after cattle were fed food containing sheep parts infected with scrapie. The sheep disease mutated into a form that could infect cattle, which in turn mutated into a form that could infect humans. There's a good chance that hunters consuming venison may be coming into contact with infected deer, at least in Wisconsin.

And although the state offers free CWD testing to hunters, many do not take advantage of it. With cases of both CWD and Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease trending upward, the potential connection is unsettling to put it mildly, especially in light of the new research.

CWD Is Fatal, Has No Cure and Spreads Like Wildfire Among Captive Animals

CWD-infected animals shed the infectious prions in saliva and urine, starting around three months after being infected. They remain contagious for the remainder of their life, contaminating land and water as they go along. According to some experts, the prions causing CWD are the most resistant disease agent currently known.

The Chronic Wasting Disease Alliance seconds this, noting, "The CWD infectious agent is smaller than most viral particles and does not evoke any detectable immune response or inflammatory reaction in the host animal. Based on experience with other TSE agents, the CWD infectious agent is assumed to be resistant to enzymes and chemicals that normally break down proteins, as well as resistant to heat and normal disinfecting procedures."¹⁰

The infectious agents in CWD also persist in the environment, which is why deer and elk raised in captivity (or concentrated via artificial feeding) have an increased likelihood of transmitting the disease among them.

The common denominator between mad cow disease and CWD is forcing natural herbivores to eat animal parts — a more or less routine practice in the concentrated animal feeding operation (CAFO) model.

(use photo 1 here) caption… meat and bone meal feed given to semi-tame deer in penned operations, to give them larger antlers and make them more valuable, often sold to trophy hunters for up to 70 or 80 thousand dollars.

      It's one more reason to avoid all meats from livestock raised in CAFOs and to be wary of supporting game farms.

The Alzheimer's Connection

While CWD and Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease may seem like more obscure diseases, the mention of Alzheimer's disease may hit closer to home. Alzheimer's disease has grown to be one of the most pressing and tragic public health issues facing the U.S. With no known cure and the number of people affected expected to triple by 2050, the Alzheimer's Association estimates that by mid-century someone in the U.S will develop Alzheimer's disease every 33 seconds.¹¹

An infectious protein called TDP-43 behaves like the prions implicated in mad cow disease and CWD. Researchers have also found that this protein may play an important role in Alzheimer's disease, as it is correlated with shrinkage of the hippocampus, thereby causing memory loss. By examining the autopsied brains of more than 340 Alzheimer's patients, the researchers found that TDP-43 was present in nearly 200 of them.

Research presented at the 2014 Alzheimer's Association International Conference (AAIC) also revealed Alzheimer's patients with TDP-43 were 10 times more likely to have been cognitively impaired at death than those without it,  and the possibility has been raised that humans might get infected with TDP-43 via contaminated meats. A 2005 study published in the journal Medical Hypotheses, stated: "In the opinion of experts, ample justification exists for considering a similar pathogenesis for Alzheimer's, Creutzfeldt-Jakob and the other spongiform encephalopathies such as Mad Cow disease. In fact, Creutzfeldt-Jakob and Alzheimer's often coexist and at this point are thought to differ merely by time-dependent physical changes. A recent study links up to 13 percent of all 'Alzheimer's' victims as really having Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease."

When it comes to CAFO meats, be it chicken, pork or beef, you're being exposed to any number of foreign proteins — and TDP-43 might be one of them. Variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (vCJD) has a long incubation period, and few dementia-related deaths in the U.S. are ever investigated. An infected person usually starts having symptoms in their 60s.

As noted by the Centers for Food Safety, the symptoms of vCJD are similar to Alzheimer's, and include staggering, memory loss, 

And although the state offers free CWD testing to hunters, many do not take advantage of it. With cases of both CWD and Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease trending upward, the potential connection is unsettling to put it mildly, especially in light of the new research. The Journal Sentinel put it down in numbers:⁹

"[Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources (DNR)] figures show that tens of thousands of hunters are killing deer in areas where CWD is prevalent and are not submitting them for testing. In 2016, in a CWD-prone area that the DNR describes as the southern farmland zone, 442 deer tested positive for disease out of 3,760 samples. More than 65,000 deer were killed in that zone and were not tested, according to DNR figures."

As noted by the Centers for Food Safety, the symptoms of CJD are similar to Alzheimer's, and include staggering, memory loss, impaired vision and dementia.¹⁵ As for CWD, if it has infected people, there's no way to know how it would present and whether it would have different or identical symptoms to other TSEs, like CJD.

Kurt Giles, a prion disease expert and associate professor of neurology at the University of California, San Francisco's Institute for Neurodegenerative Diseases, told the Journal Sentinel, " I don't know of any evidence of transmission of CWD to people, but that doesn't mean it can't happen in the future, or indeed has already happened but we can't detect it."

Until we have more answers on this emerging predicament, it makes sense to take abundant precautions, especially if you consume venison from areas with known CWD outbreaks.

Joseph Michael Mercola is an osteopathic physician, age 63 who specializes in Nutrition  Education: Midwestern University (1978–1982), University of Illinois at Chicago(1972–1976)

By Fiza Pirani, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Deer across North America are dying from a mysterious disease that gradually destroys the animals’ nervous systems.

And scientists are concerned that the infection could make its way to humans.

Chronic wasting disease — or “zombie deer disease” — was first observed in 1967 in Fort Collins, Colorado, and has since infected wild herds in 24 states and Canada, as well as in South Korea and Norway, NPR reported.

“CWD passes from animal to animal through prions, misfolded proteins that cause other proteins to misfold around them,” NPR reported. “Different prion diseases tend to only harm certain species, but can evolve to overcome those limitations.”

In some herds, as many as half of the animals carry prions.

But direct contact isn’t the only way prions are transmitted. Sick animals and cadavers can spread prions through plants and soil, which could be coated with deformed proteins for years, perhaps even decades.

An animal infected with the disease can live two years before signs of symptoms — such as a vacant stare, thick saliva, exposed ribs or drooping heads — become visible.

There have been no reported human illnesses due to the disease, and scientists don’t have conclusive evidence that infected meat has ever harmed people, suggesting there is a “species barrier” between humans and deer.

 “While most research shows there’s a robust species barrier, this recent study showed that barrier might not be quite as robust as we once thought,” Matt Dunfee, head of the Chronic Wasting Disease Alliancein Fort Collins, Colorado, told NPR.

Zabel and his team also found that the prions involved in the “zombie disease,” which scientists have only known about for 50 years, are probably still evolving, “which leads us to believe it’s only a matter of time before a prion emerges that can spread to humans,” NPR reported.

Mad cow disease, for example, is a prion disease that evolved from scrapie, a deadly disease that afflicts sheep. Once the prions were passed to cows, the cows developed a prion disease of their own (mad cow disease). And when humans ate the beef from those sick cows, they developed prions in their own brains. As of 2016, according to the Food and Drug Administration, 231 people had died from the condition.

According to Michael Miller, senior wildlife veterinarian for Colorado Parks and Wildlife, mule deer transmission more than tripled toward the end of 2017, and CWD continues to be prevalent in Colorado.

Public health officials in the area have been monitoring for CWD and human brain-wasting diseases, such as Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease.

But over the past 21 years, rising rates of both diseases haven’t impacted human health.

Still, as a precaution, Dunfee told NPR, “if you are hunting in an area where CWD is found, have your animal tested. If it comes back positive, don’t eat the meat.”

Read the full study published in the “Microbiology and Molecular Biology Reviews” at mmbr.asm.org.

By Sam Brasch

Would you eat venison if there was a chance it could slowly eat away at your brain?

If there's a slight possibility, it doesn't bother Patrick States.

He tested a sickly-looking elk in the past and threw out the meat when it came back positive. But he opted not to test the deer now on his dinner plate.

"The deer was a big healthy animal and there was a really low percentage [of CWD] in the area," he says. "It's just not something I worry about."

Matt Dunfee, head of the Chronic Wasting Disease Alliance in Fort Collins, Colo., has heard that sort of reasoning from hunters before. He calls it "absolutely wrong."

"The vast majority of the time hunters find out their animal has CWD, they're shocked, because it looked great," he says. "It was moving just like everything else. It had great body fat."

Michael Miller, senior wildlife veterinarian for Colorado Parks and Wildlife, has released data showing that mule deer submission to Chronic Wasting Disease more than tripled near the end of 2017.

The reason has to do with the speed of the disease. A CWD-infected animal can live for two years before showing signs, like a vacant stare or exposed ribs. Predators or car accidents tend to remove infected animals first, according to Dunfee.

What's trickier is explaining why hunters should worry at all. As Dunfee acknowledges, scientists have found no conclusive proof that infected meat has harmed people.

That evidence, or lack of it, suggests a strong "species barrier" between deer and humans.

CWD passes from animal to animal through prions, misfolded proteins that cause other proteins to misfold around them. Different prion diseases tend to only harm certain species, but can evolve to overcome those limitations.

For instance, Mad Cow emerged in the UK in the mid-1980s after cattle ate the bone meal of sheep infected with scrapie, a similar brain-wasting disease. The disease then made the jump to people through infected beef products, causing a new variant of Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease.

Such a change has yet to happen with CWD. So far, its path of destruction appears to have stopped at the human body.

A new study has heightened concerns. Canadian researchers found that macaque monkeys contracted CWD after eating infected deer. The results mark the first time the disease has been shown to spread to a primate through meat, rather than through a direct injection of CWD prions into the nervous system.

"While most research shows there's a robust species barrier, this recent study showed that barrier might not be quite as robust as we once thought," Dunfee says.

Research by Mark Zabel, the associate director of the Prion Research Center at Colorado State University, has found the agents behind the "zombie disease" are highly susceptible to change — and are likely still evolving.

Zabel points out that scientist have only known about CWD for 50 years, "which leads us to believe it's only a matter of time before a prion emerges that can spread to humans."

The Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment continues to monitor for Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease deaths across the state. Since 1998, it reports there have been 72 cases confirmed by brain examinations. Some families choose not to have the procedure, so the agency estimates 42 additional probable cases in that period.

Nationwide, there has been an 85 percent increase in CJD cases from 2002 to 2015 — something national health officials chalk up to better monitoring efforts and an aging population.

Dunfee says such results are encouraging, but are not definitive proof that people are safe. A strain could be steps from vaulting the species barrier between deer and people.

But if it ever did, Dunfee says his advice to hunters would be the same:

"If you are hunting in an area where CWD is found, have your animal tested. If it comes back positive, don't eat the meat."

Abnormal Proteins
Discovered in Skin of Patients
With Rare Brain Disease

By DENISE GRADY  NOV. 2017

Scientists have found prions — abnormal proteins widely believed to cause a rare, brain-destroying disease — in the skin of 23 patients who had died from it, according to a study published on Wednesday.

The discovery suggests that skin samples might be used to improve detection of the disorder, Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, which now is usually diagnosed with much more difficult procedures, like brain biopsies or autopsies.

But the presence of prions in the skin also raises unsettling questions about whether medical instruments could become contaminated even during surgery that does not involve the brain and then spread the disease to other patients. The prions stick to stainless steel and are notoriously hard to destroy.

·      

Affected individuals deteriorate mentally, weaken, move uncontrollably, and may become blind and unable to speak. The disease belongs to the same class of brain disorders as mad-cow disease.

The researchers also said that although the disease had been transmitted decades ago by corneal transplants and certain neurosurgical procedures, there was no definitive evidence that other types of surgery had ever spread it. And the levels found in  the brain far exceed the levels found in the skin.

Most cases of Creutzfeldt-Jakob, about 85 percent, are “sporadic,” meaning they strike out of the blue in people with no risk factors or family history.

Most cases of Creutzfeldt-Jakob, about 85 percent, are “sporadic,” meaning they strike out of the blue in people with no risk factors or family history.

Fire May Be the Only Remedy for a Plague Killing Deer and Elk

Carl Zimmer

Mark D. Zabel wants to set some fires.

Dr. Zabel and his colleagues are developing plans to burn plots of National Park Service land in Arkansas and Colorado. If the experiments turn out as the researchers hope, they will spare some elk and deer a gruesome death.

Across a growing swath of North America, these animals are dying from a mysterious disorder called chronic wasting disease. This year is the 50th anniversary of the discovery of chronic wasting disease.

“There’s a lot that we still don’t know and don’t understand about the disease,” Dr. Zabel said in an interview.

Direct contact, it turns out, may not be the only way in which prions are transmitted. Sick animals and cadavers spread prions across the landscape. Plants and soil may remain coated with deformed proteins for years, perhaps even decades.

Dr. Zabel now suspects that the only way to rid the land of them is to set controlled fires.

Researchers discovered that chronic wasting disease belongs to a small group of conditions caused by prions. But other prion diseases are known only to affect livestock or people, not wildlife.

Scrapie, for example, is a deadly disease that afflicts sheep. A number of studies indicated that bone meal contaminated with scrapie prions passed the prions to cows. The cows developed a prion disease of their own, called bovine spongiform encephalopathy, nicknamed mad cow disease.

In rare cases, people who ate beef from the sick cows developed prions in their own brains. As of 2016, 231 people had died from the condition worldwide.

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.

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As a result, Dr. Zabel and his colleagues have found, infected animals can release huge numbers of prions. “We found it in urine, in saliva and in feces,” he said.

Other members of a herd can get sick by making direct contact with a shedding animal. But the way the disease is spreading across North America suggests that the prions is are also using other routes to get to new hosts.

If deer got sick only by direct contact, for example, you would expect the outbreak to be most severe in the Midwest, where populations are densest. But some of the worst outbreaks are in the Rocky Mountains, where there are fewer animals.

Mathematical models suggest that animals are getting sick from prions in the environment. In additional to the prions shed while a sick animal is alive, its cadaver can release another bounty of deformed proteins onto the ground.

Some studies suggest that these prions can end up on grass and other plants, which are then eaten by healthy animals. Some prions in the soil may bind to minerals. It’s possible that animals may sometimes pick them up if they eat bits of dirt.

Compared with viruses or bacteria, prions are impressively rugged. In a forest or on a prairie, a prion may be able to hang around for years, still able to infect a new animal. As herds migrate along the same route year after year, the supply of prions in the environment may keep increasing.

Dr. Zabel is also concerned about the potential threat chronic wasting disease might someday pose to humans.

So far, there have not been any documented cases in which people got sick from eating meat from sick animals. “That doesn’t mean it won’t happen,” Dr. Zabel warned. “We may just be in the early stages,” he said.

Dr. Zabel and his colleagues hope to test controlled burns. While the fires won’t be hot enough to destroy the prions, they might kill off enough prion-laden plants to lower the odds of healthy animals getting sick.

The researchers will test this hypothesis by seeing if the prevalence of chronic wasting disease drops after they set their fires.

Dr. Zabel said he has encountered some stiff skepticism about his plan. But he still thinks it is the only plausible way to put a brake on the prions.

“If you eliminate the plants that have prions on the surface, that would be a huge step forward,” he said. “I really don’t think it’s that crazy.”

READ MORE… thanks to Richard Abdoler for providing the following sites for those who want to know more….

 A general CDC site: https://www.cdc.gov/prions/cwd/index.html

And….https://www.cdc.gov/prions/index.html

Let’s Go Armadillo Hunting

      If you live a rural life, you spend enough time outdoors to know how many turkeys there are in your area.  It is pretty simple to figure, because wild turkey group together in January to feed and roost; hens, poults, and mature gobblers.

       They all come together and are easy to observe because as the acorns get scarce they feed in open ground.  I have seen in various river bottoms in the Ozarks, as many as seventy or eighty turkeys congregated together and from that, with binoculars, you can sort of calculate the number of old gobblers, jakes, hens and year old hens in a huge flock.

 

       It varies, but usually in a flock of seventy or eighty winter turkeys you will see from eight to twelve long-bearded gobblers and about twenty jakes.  There will be about fifteen or twenty mature hens and the rest are young hens.  That’s kind of a norm. If you see that number in a flock, you can figure that you ought to have a good breeding season and a good summer hatch. 

  

       You get worried if there are only a half dozen gobblers in a group that size.  But what worries me most is seeing only 30 turkeys where there were 70 or 80 in a winter flock two or three years ago, and I have seen a lot of that this winter.  It is even more worrisome when 50 percent or more of one small winter flock is adult turkeys.

       What I gather from what I have seen this winter is that in many areas of the Ozarks, flocks are not of a normal make-up…. too few, and more adults than young.  But even with that ratio, if we have a good hatch this spring in those areas, there will be little problem with turkey numbers over-all.  What is really a problem is if there is a poor hatch like that two or three years in a row.

       With all birds that nest on the ground, there is a problem each spring when there is too much rain, but in the area of southern Missouri and north Arkansas, the high number of coons and skunks and possums can be a problem not only for wild turkeys but for quail, meadowlarks, woodcock, even whippoorwills. They find and eat eggs, lots of them!

       And then there is the armadillo.  Just a couple of days ago I walked through a wooded bottomland next to the river and counted four of them foraging around in the woods.  If you want to see how great diversity is, look at what it has done to nature, with starlings and snake-head fish and armadillos, just to name a small few of what is invading the natural world around us, and so adversely affecting native creatures.

       This winter, if you like to shoot, and like to hunt, spend a few hours out in the woods around you hunting and shooting armadillos and you will help make the area you live in a better place for native wildlife. They are so stupid they aren’t very wild. Kill as many of them as you can and leave them lay. Never, ever handle an armadillo, as they are carriers of leprosy and have infected a good number of people in southeastern states with that awful disease.  It takes an army of hunters to affect their number, so join up.  Never let one live when you see it.

       As for the turkeys, what I have seen is a regional thing.   There are friends of mine talking about seeing better numbers where they live. If any biologist tries to give numbers at any time of the year that cover half of a state, he is lacks knowledge of the species. One of my best friends was a turkey biologist for thirty years in another state, and the two of us had a good laugh when a Conservation Department media specialist got on a local television station out of Springfield Missouri in mid-summer and announced that their experts felt there had been a one percent increase in the wild turkey hatch that year across the Ozarks. 

 

        That would mean that in their infinite wisdom, biologists had determined that for every one hundred poults in the early summer the year before there were now one hundred and one.  How silly it is to say something like that.

       You never really know what wild turkey numbers are in your area until this time of year, when the weather gets rough and small flocks gather to gather and are very active in order to find the food they have to have to survive.  Then use what I do, look at the group and try to figure those percentages.   It will vary quite a bit from county to county, but from what I have seen in three or four counties, things are not as good as they should be. 

 

       On land I own and other areas I hunt, we really seem to have a problem with wild turkey numbers this winter.  As much as I like spring rains, I dread a spring deluge at the wrong time, because that can almost completely destroy a big hatch of young turkeys. Obviously that was a problem last spring.

  

    

       What is being said right now about the deer disease known as chronic wasting is absolutely ridiculous, because some game and fish departments are afraid they will lose so much money in deer tag revenue if they word things wrong.  Many who eat deer meat are absolutely convinced that humans cannot get chronic wasting disease.

 

       Technically, you cannot, because what is known as CWD in deer is called by a different name when it kills a human being.  But I promise you, despite what you have heard, hunters and others have died because they ingested the prions which cause the same disease, by different names, in deer, elk, sheep, goats and cattle.  In all these creatures, it is given a different name and in humans it is called Kruetzfeldt-Jakobs disease. How many have died from it is just a guess, because doctors I have talked with say that it is something not often tested for and many times, misdiagnosed as something else.

       In my upcoming spring magazine I have tried to compile what medical people and scientists have been learning about this disease, and you can read all about it, in several pages of fact and theory coming from the study of this disease, from the best-qualified medical people, which is nothing like what the MDC is telling us.

       Believe me, if you have eaten untested deer meat like that given out in any state’s ‘share the harvest’ program, you are taking a risk.  How much of a risk no one can say. I urge you to read in the spring issue of The Lightnin’ Ridge Outdoor magazine, some other views of those who have looked at this disease without bias.

       I recently learned that in the northern tier of Arkansas counties bordering Missouri, examination of road-killed deer in 2017 showed more than 100 CWD infected deer.  Isn’t it strange that the Missouri Conservation Department just finds a handful of deer in neighboring counties with that disease?  Apparently the awful disease just stops at the Arkansas-Missouri line.

       To contact me, call our office… 417-777-5227,  or email lightninridge47@gmail.com.  The address  to mail is Box 22, Bolivar, Mo. 65613

      

Speaking at Wild Game Dinner

 

Wild Game Dinner

Feb 22, 2018

7 p.m. to 8 p.m.

Mark your calendars… I am speaking at a Wild Game Dinner on February 22 from 7 p.m. to 8 p.m.  It will be held at The New Hope Fellowship Church, Springdale, AR, which is located off I-49. Take the Siloam Springs Exit (West) and go the first stoplight (Gene George Blvd) and turn right at the Pilot Station. The church is down the road on the right across from the entrance to the Harber Meadows subdivision. The address is 850 Gene George Blvd… church phone 479-750-4673.

I would love to meet you! Bring friends and relatives... children are welcome. I will have all 9 of my books and will be giving away free copies of my magazine, THE LIGHTNIN’ RIDGE OUTDOOR JOURNAL.

 
         

     

A Malady Mis-Named

Many suffer from an affliction that is not well-known by most people including some hospital emergency rooms. Larry has written an account of dealing with ocular migraines for most of his life.
Gloria Dablemont

       They call it ‘ocular migraine’ but that is a poor name for something that is awful.  I know… I have lived with it for more than fifty years.  I am writing about it now because I know others have it and have no idea what it is.  I particularly want parents to know if the malady appears in their children.

       First, the word migraine is misleading.  Migraine headaches do not have a thing to do with it.  The first thing that happens is, without warning, there appears a very distinctive curving zig-zag line in your vision.  Quickly, just beneath and around it is a brightness like you are looking into a white light nearly like you would get from looking directly at the sun.  Within a minute, it becomes a complete blindness, except for what they refer to as peripheral vision, meaning you can see, to some extent, those things to your far left or far right, or at your feet. 

       As this blindness takes over, other things happen. With me, a numbness begins to come from the tips of my fingers up my left arm. The numbness is severe enough that you cannot feel a pin stuck in your arm, and it comes with about the speed of an insect crawling up your arm, into your shoulder, neck, and quickly into the left side of the face, right down the middle of your forehead, nose and mouth.  The other side of your body is unaffected.  With that numbness, you will lose the ability to speak coherently, so you learn that you had better tell someone quickly that you are going to be okay and to leave you alone and not take you to the hospital. 

       No one can ever know what causes it, doctors seem to be unaware of it’s presence or how to treat it. Going to the hospital is useless. The last time I went, a big hefty, gruff nurse told me I was putting on an act.  “You can see me just fine, and you could talk if you want to,” she derided me.  I wish to God I could have seen her face or remember who she was because if I did I would let that hospital know that anyone in any kind of stress should not be ridiculed. And if I could have talked,  I would have told her what she was.

       What is difficult to deal with is the terror you experience, a foggy awareness of all that is going on, and an unreasonable, unexplainable fear.  That is the crux of it.  If you can learn to handle that fear, you can get through it so much easier. No matter how many times it happens to you, the fear, the terror, the panic always is a part of it at first.  In one to two hours usually, you recover the ability to speak fairly coherently and then the blindness subsides fairly quickly.  In the aftermath, you are confused for hours, and you may become extremely irritated and angry.  You might lash out at those who are trying to help you.  But the confusion, the inability to make your legs and arms work like you want them to, and the inability to think of the words you want to use, may last up to a few hours oor a day.  Surprisingly, I have never had a headache through all that.  But some do.  And you should know that with different people, different things happen.

       The best thing anyone could do for me when I have one is to give me something to help me sleep and leave me alone.  I now deal with the onset of this by doing these things…    If I am alone, I stay away from anyone, and find seclusion. Perhaps I will pull my pick-up into a remote parking lot, lay the seat back and close my eyes and perhaps listen to music that I like. I do not recommend rap music, but then I am a child of the fifties and sixties!! Afterward I ask directions from someone on how to get where I am going.  But believe it or not, it may take awhile to remember just where I am going. This might help more than you know.  Select a comforting Bible verse and concentrate on repeating it over and over in your mind. I continually repeat, “Come unto me, all ye who are weak and heavy laden, and I will give you rest.”  It comes from the faith that I have in God and if you don’t have that, I hope some day you find it.  Other advice….Just let it run it’s course. Through all the years of medicine I have taken to help this condition, nothing ever worked.  You will likely find that out.

       And yes, I know what brings these “Ocular Migraines” on.  Three things,---extreme fatigue, extreme stress or extreme anger.  And the degree of the severity and long-lastingness is strange.  I have had these things last only an hour and then I return quickly to normal.  But sometimes I have experienced a bad affect for up to two days.

Once out on the lake, I got through it by lying down in a pile of leaves against the trunk of a large tree.  I eventually slept quite a while and it was late in the evening when I awakened.  There on the shore was my boat, but I had no idea what lake I was on or how to get back to my truck.  Thank goodness some folks on the lake helped me. I was amazed how I could be so short-tempered and angry with people so kind and helping.

What I wouldn’t give to go find them and explain things.

       I have tremendous embarrassment from what I have done at times immediately in the aftermath of the blindness.  There is a doctor I think the world of, who was trying to help me, and Gloria tells me that I talked to him like he was my greatest enemy.  I would like to go talk to him, but I just don’t know what to say.  For the rest of his life, that man will think I am a worthless jerk.

       The first of these “spells” occurred when I was 13, and when I was 19 at the University of Missouri, they had me in the hospital for two days.  That was the worst of the occurrences, because I couldn’t describe my parents.  When I finally came up with their names I couldn’t for the life of me remember what they looked like.

       In my thirties and forties, I would go for years and have no problems and get to thinking I had outgrown the awful things.  But in the last two years, the severity has increased, and now they overwhelm me by coming every few weeks.

For anyone who might recognize these symptoms, the one thing we all have in common is the zig-zag line and temporary blindness.  From there, everyone with ocular migraine seems to have different problems in the aftermath.

       About ten years ago, driving through Macon or Moberly Missouri, I can’t remember which, I was quickly hit by the onset of a particularly bad episode.  I was near a hospital and somehow ended up in a dark room for four hours under the 10-minute attention of an emergency room doctor who didn’t know what was wrong because I couldn’t tell him.  That day, after 40 years of living with this, I found out what it was! A nurse came in and spent about a half hour with me.  She said she had the same thing, and described the numbness, the blindness and the zig-zag line to perfection.  I broke down and actually cried with relief when she told me that the problem would never have a lasting effect.  She knew because she too had lived with it since childhood.  She put her arms around me and assured me that we would both be just fine.  I hugged her and just turned loose all of my emotions.  I didn’t want to let go of her.

       There have been a bunch of MRI’s and cat scans that say there is nothing in my brain they can find. I doubt if many people have had their brain looked at that often. But the United States Army found what others did not.  When I was 20 I wanted to join an Officer Candidate School and in St. Louis at a place called Jefferson Barracks they put me in a dark room and hooked up about a dozen or so wires to my head.  I slept for three hours and afterward I was told my brain waves showed some kind of problem which rendered me ineligible for the armed services except for a possible stateside desk service. I had plenty of questions, but they had no answers.

       So there you have it.  I have bared my soul about something I have seldom spoken of, even to my family.  But recently I was talking to a youngster who I immediately knew was a victim of ocular migraine.  It makes me think something needs to be said about this.  Who knows how many people have it, and live in the dark as to what it is.  If you are a parent and experience a problem with a child who is sometimes incoherent, or can’t see, or has a numbness in their face, you may be able to help him a great deal, even though medical science cannot do much.

       And no matter who you are or what you might be living with, remember that Bible verse.  It is something of the recipe for small, unheralded miracles.

But here is what you need to remember… soon, you will b e fine.  It won’t hurt you, it won’t damage your brain.  If you are afraid, that is the worst thing you can experience from this.  No one I ever heard of experienced any lasting effect. So close your eyes and rest and relax the best you can. if you can listen to music you really like, that will help.  And afterward, sleep a little if you can.  You’ll be fine soon.  I might be a good example because I am 70 now and in great health, still can hunt fish, walk, do anything I want.   Live with it, it is an inconvenience and little more if you dispel the panic and overcome the fear.