If Singletary is truly worried about the study of prions, he should be jumping up and down happy about this. And to think, it was some dumb deer farmers that should be credited for this, not a federal government agency.
Researcher: Iowa deer study linked to human health
(185,45,93);Tests conducted on some 400 deer from a north Iowa farm this summer might some day help doctors detect debilitating diseases such as Alzheimer’s in humans, a researcher says.
;(50,51,51)Nicholas Haley, a veterinarian at Kansas State University, is working to develop a test identifying chronic wasting disease in live deer, elk and moose. Now the testing must be done after the animals have died. The deer involved in the testing this summer were later destroyed.
;(50,51,51)State and federal agriculture officials, along with the herd’s owners, allowed Haley’s team to collect samples from the deer in late August before the animals were destroyed. The state said Thursday about 280 of 350 deer on the farm, quarantined for two years, tested positive for chronic wasting disease.
;(185,45,93)“These tests, and the approaches to these tests, can be used for human diseases like Creutzfeldt-Jakob or other similar diseases, and eventually it can be translated to Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s disease,� Haley said. “They’re all part of the same family.�
;(185,45,93)Human diseases such as Creutzfeldt-Jakob and animal diseases like chronic wasting and mad cow are caused by an abnormal protein called a prion that attacks the brain.
;(185,45,93)Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s involve a different protein, Haley said. But “the scientific infrastructure that we use to develop these tests for chronic wasting disease probably can be directly translated for Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s.�
;(50,51,51)Carol Sipfle, executive director of the Alzheimer’s Association of Greater Iowa, said she is unfamiliar with Haley’s research. But she said providing Americans with earlier detection is crucial.
;(50,51,51)“Now the testing that’s done is a process of elimination,� after symptoms of memory loss or other problems begin to show up, Sipfle said. “If they can’t find anything that’s wrong, the doctor will likely say you have Alzheimer’s.�
;(50,51,51)The number of Americans with Alzheimer’s is expected to triple to 16 million by 2050.
;(185,45,93)“We’re going to support anything that advances research to prevent, treat and cure the disease,� Sipfle said
;(185,45,93)Haley said taking samples from the herd near Clear Lake was a unique opportunity for researchers.
;(185,45,93) (50,51,51)Typically, state and federal agencies move “quietly and quickly� to destroy captive deer herds that have been infected by chronic wasting disease, he said.
;(50,51,51)“There’s not always a lot of information gained� from the depopulation of a deer farm, Haley said. “This farm in Iowa was different.�
;(50,51,51)State officials ordered the animals to be quarantined in 2012 after an infected whitetail buck was harvested in a hunting preserve in southeast Iowa.
;(185,45,93)Haley said the Brakkes pushed state and federal officials to allow him to get samples from the animals to further research into chronic wasting disease and potentially, human diseases.
;(185,45,93)“They wanted something to come out of having the animals destroyed,� Haley said.
;(50,51,51)Haley said a test for live animals could be used whenever captive deer, elk or moose are bought and sold, just like screenings that cattle undergo for tuberculosis and other diseases.
;(50,51,51)It also could be used on wild elk, for example, when they’re moved to areas where populations have been thinned because of human pressures such as hunting.
;(185,45,93)Haley said he has been informally sharing his work with researchers at the University of Kansas Alzheimer’s Disease Center. Full development of a chronic wasting disease test could be up to five years away.
