The Science of CWD:
A Chronology of Literature
on Chronic Wasting Disease

Articles, Papers, & News Stories on Chronic Wasting Disease (CWD) and Wisconsin DNR proposals

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15 year 70A Harvest Data provide reliable measure of the success of the CWD Management Plan

The WVDL - CWD Testing Controversy: Are the new IDEXX tests reliable?

An online journal on current happenings with CWD and Deer Management in Wisconsin and elsewhere.

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• July 2, 2003. The National Institutes of Health openly acknowledges prions have not been
  fully established as a *cause* of any disease!
  Feature: 'Mad cow' research misguided?
  "This leaves open the possibility, as a growing body of research suggests, that these diseases are caused by some other pathogen -- possibly a virus or bacteria."
  
  "The current hypothesis holds abnormal prions are infectious and cause the brain destruction seen in TSEs. Some experts insist, however, there is scant scientific evidence to back this up. 'The best kept secret in this field is that (prions) in any form have never shown infectivity,' said Laura Manuelidis, head of the neuropathology section at Yale University's Surgery Department in New Haven, Conn."
  
  
• April 3 2003 Chronic Wasting Disease: A Working Hypothesis, The Agent and its Transmission.
  Author R.A. Forrest
  The CWD Foundation Library
  
  "Despite over 20 years of research, the origins and mode of CWD transmission are still unknown . . . . Given that to date, after tens of millions of research dollars, no one has yet defined the causal agent of TSE disease, the probability of Spiroplasma being the long sought after causative agent appears quite credible. If one can reasonably accept Spiroplasma as the probable causal agent of TSE disease then, perhaps, the role of insects in transmission is much more certain. If insect transmission is plausible, then selective deductions can be derived from the cacophony of disease information available. "
  
  "The psoroptic mite, as well as various varies of ticks make use of their unwitting host by consuming lymph or blood. In particular, the lymph-sucking nature of Psoroptes makes it an ideal vector for the inter-animal spread of potential lymph-borne disease."
  
  "Forrest (2002) suspects that Spiroplasma bacteria, using the white blood cell rich lymph, have an innate ability to confound the host's immune system and thence gain access to the central nervous system creating TSE disease."
  

• May 14 2003. A portion of testimony before the Joint Legislative committee on Natural Resources in opposition to expansion of the powers of the DNR to manage CWD among wild deer.
  "We have listened for over a year as DNR officials stated that the eradication is based on "the best available science". I too have independently researched "the best available science" and have reached the opposite conclusion. Random deer eradication from nearly 1,000 square miles of hilly, wooded, private property, as a means to eliminate CWD is not only irrational and impractical, but also impossible. Conclusions from the scientific literature support this view."
  ---Click here to read the complete Testimony of Dr. Anthony Grabski, Protein Biochemist
  
  "I have studied deer nutrition and deer diseases for the past 16 years and I am also an avid hunter having hunted throughout the U.S. and Canada. . . I am totally against the DNR's eradication plan and also against their total ban on feeding and baiting of deer. . . . The fact is that many researchers and scientists disagree with our DNR's position. . .There are several other theories on CWD that the DNR chooses to ignore that I would like to discuss: "
  ---Click here to read the complete Testimony of Todd Stittleburg, Animal Nutritionist
  
  Statistical Gymnastics & Fuzzy Math - DNR CWD Testing Methodology Fails to Stand up to Close Examination. Up to 200 CWD diseased deer per county are considered irrelevant by testing model. Most Wisconsin Counties fail to provide adequate samples for meaningful results.
  
  
• January 2 2003. New DNR Secretary urged to replace the CWD Eradication Plan
  "Adaptive Management Not Eradication"
  "Several factors argue for replacing the 400 - 500 square mile wild deer Eradication Program with a statewide Adaptive Management Plan that will more broadly focus on the multitude of issues addressing Wisconsin white-tailed deer management . . . as well as consider the reality of the strained and limited resources available to the State of Wisconsin for its mounting natural resource and human service needs."
  
  ". . . The citizens group believes our state budget crisis and the mounting human and natural resource needs cannot afford to continue to spend 12 million dollars to kill 49 infected deer. The price tag - both social and economic - is far too high. And the likelihood of success far too slim."
  
  
• September 2002. A MUST READ. An insightful article from Eco-Detective & Researcher Mark Purdey:
  "The Wasting Lands - CWD epidemic in Deer" ". . . Despite the scare mongering, a basic study of the history of CWD clearly demonstrates that this disease does NOT originate from deer to deer contact. Despite such a simple observation, a manic mindset has recently gripped the whole US nation who have jumped to the assumption that this disease stems solely from hyper infectious origins. Any evidence put forward for an environmental cause has been blindly ignored. In this respect, the recent discovery of another cluster of CWD in Wisconsin has invoked an official overreaction of unprecedented proportion – a wholesale slaughter policy has been enacted throughout CWD endemic regions across the USA."
  
  ". . . This whole hyper infectious myth has been based on the fact that TSEs can be transmitted in the laboratory; whereby TSE affected brain tissue is injected into misfortunate laboratory animals that subsequently contract TSE. The fact that classes of Alzheimer’s and other neurodegenerative diseases can be transmitted in this way is completely ignored. But these transmission experiments prove nothing in terms of demonstrating whether TSEs are caused by a microbiological infectious agent or not. After all TSEs do not fulfil Koch’s postulates; the conventional yardstick for assessing whether a given disease stems from infectious origins. . . ." *** Printable Adobe PDF Version of the Wasting Lands Article
  
  
• Editorial Sept. 6, 2002 Hot Zone landowner, hunter and UW Wildlife Ecology graduate writes follow-up to his guest editorial on Chronic Wasting Disease in the Wisconsin State Journal.
  Greg Phillips presents information on deer reproduction that challenges the dire prediction of white-tail extinction due to Chronic Wasting Disease: ". . . We don't need sophisticated computer models to show how the deer population can thrive under the presence of CWD, as it has in western states. The current model showing a population crash is computer gibberish."
  Other guest editorials by Greg Phillips:

• CWD, LET'S MAKE THE RIGHT DECISION June 26, 2002
• DEER BIOLOGY AND BAITING February 28, 2003

• News Story July 1, 2002 Former Professor & UW Director of Biosafety comments on the environmental and safety risks inherent in the DNR Chronic Wasting Disease deer extermination plan.
  "What the science is, at least from a disposal aspect, . . . indicate[s] that environmental contamination may play an important role in local maintenance and transmission of the disease. . . . If mandatory attention is not given to the safe and proper removal of all intact deer carcasses in the entire zoned area, then it is conceivable that high surface contamination will occur and persist. . . . To do less in a massive kill program now being initiated is to invite unanticipated consequences for which there is no "science available."
  
  
• News Story June 25, 2002 Natural Resources Board turns a deaf ear to scientific testimony and landowners opposing the wholesale slaughter of deer.
  Following a two hour DNR slide show on its Deer Eradication Program, "Killing Zone" landowners and other citizens are allowed 3 minutes to address the DNR Board. After 46 speakers, Wildlife Subcommittee Chair Behnke awakes from slumber to declare that the DNR has listened to more than enough public comment and that "all he has heard today [from the public] is opinions and no facts." See full text of several presentations plus highlights of the DNR program for the 500+ square mile Intensive Harvest Zone.
  
  
• Testimony before June 25, 2002 Wisconsin Natural Resources Board Meeting
  Dr. Max Rosenbaum, former UW Director of Bio Safety; Anthony Grabski, Ph.D. Group Leader of Protein Biochemistry; Dr. John Barnes, DVM and manager of Prairie Spirit Wildlife Sanctuary, join several critics of the DNR's plan to exterminate 25,000 deer near Mt. Horeb, Wisconsin.
  
  
• News Story June 20, 2002 Chronic Wasting Disease discovered in New Mexico
  The infected mule deer was found inside the security perimeter of the White Sands Missle Base near the US-Mexico border - hundreds of miles from nearest confirmed CWD case and far from any game farm. Kerry Mower, a wildlife disease specialist with the state's Game and Fish Department, said the New Mexico case could shake the world's current understanding of CWD. "This is a complete surprise," he said. "It just doesn't fit the profile. But right now, where the disease came from is less pressing than what we do about it. We need to find out how widespread it is in the local population." Also see Reuters News Story
  
  
  
• Don't Worry, Go Hunting City News Story by Mike Mosedale 10/16/02
  "Are efforts to allay concerns over mad deer disease driven by good science or vested interests?"
  http://citypages.com/databank/23/1141/article10791.asp
  
  

• "A Safe & Sane Alternative to the Wisconsin DNR Deer Slaughter" CAIDS Press Release June 3, 2002
  A comprehensive, reasoned program to vigorously respond to the Chronic Wasting Disease situation and present a clear alternative to the extremes of "do-nothing" and "total annihilation" of wild deer in a 361 square mile area.
  MS Word Document
  Adobe PDF Document

• "WDNR CWD Management Plan a Practical Impossibility" by Anthony C. Grabski, Ph.D. May 1, 2002
  A scientist critiques the DNR data, research methods and the plan of attack on Chronic Wasting Disease
  MS Word Document
  Adobe PDF Document
  

• "Eleven Primary Considerations for Chronic Wasting Disease Management" by Charles H. Southwick, Ph.D. Professor Emeritus, University of Colorado Dept. of Environmental Biology  May 16, 2002
  From Testimony to US House of Representatives Committee on Resources. Mass culling control strategies not working and in some cases has contributed to the spread of Chronic Wasting Disease.
  MS Word Document
  Adobe PDF Document
  
  
• Wisconsin pressured to change response to fatal deer disease MPR News Story May 30, 2002
  ". . . more and more people are coming out against the summer hunts. Reports the DNR plans to use helicopters and sharpshooters have only fueled concerns."
  http://news.mpr.org/features/200205/30_galballye_venison-m/

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