USAHA News Alert Summaries - March 9, 2010
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1. Officials hunt for way to keep herd healthy [OH]
By Kristina Smith Horn
Mansfield News Journal March 8, 2010
The spread of a deadly brain disease could threaten Ohio's deer population and the revenue the state receives from hunters.
Chronic Wasting Disease, an illness among deer and elk that causes the brain to deteriorate, has been found in Midwestern states including Michigan, Wisconsin and Illinois. So far, Ohio has been successful in keeping the disease out of its deer herd.
"People come from all over the country to hunt our prized deer," said Larry Mitchell, president of the League of Ohio Sportsmen. "Our big concern is CWD coming into the state."
That's why state Sen. Bob Gibbs, R-Lakeville, and Rep. Mark Okey, D-Carrollton, have proposed bills to have businesses that keep commercial deer apply for a permit and be subject to fencing requirements and other control measures.
The concern is that deer in breeding facilities and preserves -- where operators buy trophy-sized deer from around the country and people pay to hunt them -- could become infected, get loose and infect the native deer population. Chronic Wasting Disease can spread through feces, urine and saliva and by animal-to-animal contact.
The bills also would give the Ohio Department of Agriculture sole authority to regulate commercial deer. That's where the controversy comes in.
Who controls the deer?
In a memo last month, the Ohio Department of Natural Resources opposed the bills because the agency wants to retain oversight of the deer population.
Full text: http://tinyurl.com/yjucrvb
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5. New form of prion disease discovered
UPI
March. 8, 2010
BETHESDA, Md. -- U.S. scientists say they've discovered a new form of
prion disease that damages brain arteries and might lead to new
Alzheimer's disease therapies.
The researchers at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious
Diseases studying how prions -- infectious protein particles -- destroy
the brain said they observed a new form of the disease that doesn't
cause the sponge-like brain deterioration typically seen in prion
diseases. Instead, it resembles a form of human Alzheimer's disease,
cerebral amyloid angiopathy, that damages brain arteries.
"The study results ... are similar to findings from two newly reported
human cases of the prion disease Gerstmann-Straussler-Scheinker
syndrome," the NIH said, adding the finding represents a new mechanism
of prion disease brain damage, according to Dr. Bruce Chesebro, chief of
the Laboratory of Persistent Viral Diseases at the institute's Rocky
Mountain Laboratories.
Prion diseases -- also known as transmissible spongiform
encephalopathies -- include mad cow disease, in cattle; scrapie in
sheep; sporadic Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease in humans and chronic wasting disease in deer, elk and moose. All primarily damage the brain.
The findings in the study that involved laboratory mice indicate prion
diseases can be divided into two groups: those with plaques that destroy
brain blood vessels and those without plaques that lead to the
sponge-like damage to nerve cells, Chesebro said.
Scientists from the Veterinary Laboratories Agency in Scotland also
participated in the study that is reported in the journal PLoS Pathogens.
Source: http://tinyurl.com/y9eus6b
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1. Officials hunt for way to keep herd healthy [OH]
By Kristina Smith Horn
Mansfield News Journal March 8, 2010
The spread of a deadly brain disease could threaten Ohio's deer population and the revenue the state receives from hunters.
Chronic Wasting Disease, an illness among deer and elk that causes the brain to deteriorate, has been found in Midwestern states including Michigan, Wisconsin and Illinois. So far, Ohio has been successful in keeping the disease out of its deer herd.
"People come from all over the country to hunt our prized deer," said Larry Mitchell, president of the League of Ohio Sportsmen. "Our big concern is CWD coming into the state."
That's why state Sen. Bob Gibbs, R-Lakeville, and Rep. Mark Okey, D-Carrollton, have proposed bills to have businesses that keep commercial deer apply for a permit and be subject to fencing requirements and other control measures.
The concern is that deer in breeding facilities and preserves -- where operators buy trophy-sized deer from around the country and people pay to hunt them -- could become infected, get loose and infect the native deer population. Chronic Wasting Disease can spread through feces, urine and saliva and by animal-to-animal contact.
The bills also would give the Ohio Department of Agriculture sole authority to regulate commercial deer. That's where the controversy comes in.
Who controls the deer?
In a memo last month, the Ohio Department of Natural Resources opposed the bills because the agency wants to retain oversight of the deer population.
Full text: http://tinyurl.com/yjucrvb
********
5. New form of prion disease discovered
UPI
March. 8, 2010
BETHESDA, Md. -- U.S. scientists say they've discovered a new form of
prion disease that damages brain arteries and might lead to new
Alzheimer's disease therapies.
The researchers at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious
Diseases studying how prions -- infectious protein particles -- destroy
the brain said they observed a new form of the disease that doesn't
cause the sponge-like brain deterioration typically seen in prion
diseases. Instead, it resembles a form of human Alzheimer's disease,
cerebral amyloid angiopathy, that damages brain arteries.
"The study results ... are similar to findings from two newly reported
human cases of the prion disease Gerstmann-Straussler-Scheinker
syndrome," the NIH said, adding the finding represents a new mechanism
of prion disease brain damage, according to Dr. Bruce Chesebro, chief of
the Laboratory of Persistent Viral Diseases at the institute's Rocky
Mountain Laboratories.
Prion diseases -- also known as transmissible spongiform
encephalopathies -- include mad cow disease, in cattle; scrapie in
sheep; sporadic Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease in humans and chronic wasting disease in deer, elk and moose. All primarily damage the brain.
The findings in the study that involved laboratory mice indicate prion
diseases can be divided into two groups: those with plaques that destroy
brain blood vessels and those without plaques that lead to the
sponge-like damage to nerve cells, Chesebro said.
Scientists from the Veterinary Laboratories Agency in Scotland also
participated in the study that is reported in the journal PLoS Pathogens.
Source: http://tinyurl.com/y9eus6b
