Study completed on CWD

[Oak]

This study basically confirmed what experts already suspected.

"Actually, it was just a formal finding for something we suspected for a long time," Williams said of the study, which established that CWD is transmitted where animals congregate and not necessarily between mother and fawn.

For the study, nine does with CWD were placed in pens at the Foothills campus in Fort Collins. The does then gave birth to fawns.

Williams and Miller then brought in nine fawns from wild herds that were free from CWD, a fatal neurological disease that causes infected animals to become emaciated, display abnormal behavior and lose bodily functions.
"We knew the females in the facility had CWD, so we wanted to see if only their fawns contracted it, or if the healthy fawns did as well," Williams said.

At the end of the study, all nine fawns born to females in the pens contracted the disease, but so did eight of the nine brought in from the outside - and the remaining animal is starting to display symptoms of the disease.

Full story here

Oak

<FONT COLOR="#800080" SIZE="1">[ 09-14-2003 19:00: Message edited by: Colorado Oak ]</font>

 

[FEW]

I thought they were only able to test animals once they were dead, and had no way to test a living animal? That is just what I read 6 months ago...

 

[Oak]

They can now test the tonsil samples from live deer, but there's still no approved test for elk as far as I know.

Oak

 

[dgibson]

I believe in this instance they're going on symptoms. The animals are showing symptoms consistent with CWD, so the assumption is that it is CWD. I guess they'll back up their theory with testing once the animals die or are euthanized.

 

[Oak]

I'm sure they knewthat the deer had CWD before the study was published in Nature. Here's a quote from another article about the study.

"In an experimental herd in Colorado, some 90% of animals succumbed to the disease within four years, regardless of whether their parents were infected or not."
Another good read here

Oak

 

[Ten Bears]

I thought the tonsil test worked on elk, but not deer. Oh well, sounds like a good start on the study on transmission of CWD.

 

[FEW]

Thanks for the info... I guess I have not been reading down here enough.