they are wasting away

THEY ARE WASTING AWAY

cdc

my younger brother the one who had alzheimers disease loved to hunt
sometimes he would drag me along with him usually at a last resort
i didnt enjoy it as much as he did but i enjoyed the peace and quiet of hunting

now i only went deer hunting a few times in my teen years and never went deer hunting after that
my younger brother loved deer season and it became a big part of his fall each year well into the throes of his alzheimers disease

now the deer that were harvested were dressed and either given away or kept for food
it wasnt wasted
now deer meat or venison is a healthy alternative to our usual source of red meat
its safe to eat if cooked correctly

well
maybe
a few deer are showing up in the us that folks shouldnt be eating

a few years ago a social worker was doing a two day seminar on dementia
she contacted me to ask if i would do a lecture on the different types of dementia
i knew all about alzheimers disease but knew less about the others
i knew robin williams died with lewy body dementia so i read up and researched that one first
then there was vascular dementia
then there was frontotemporal dementia
then there was alcohol induced or drug dementia
then there was head trauma dementia
then there was huntingtons dementia
then there was mixed dementia
then there was parkinsons disease dementia
then there was
cjd or  creutzfeldt jakob disease one i didnt know much about

now this is where all this ties into deer hunting

cjd is caused by a prion protein that gets into the brain and causes a diffuse neurological disease that is fast and furious
it happens much faster than the other dementias
some folks inherit this disease
others get infected with the prion protein
how
from contaminated surgical instruments in neurological or brain surgery
from receiving human growth hormone from infected prion sources
from transplants
but with new sterilization techniques and single use instruments and with synthetic human growth hormone this method of exposure to the prion has been controlled by these methods
then
from eating cows or bovine that had been fed feed that was made with sheep brains which were contaminated with the prion protein
some folks who ate the contaminated meat got cjd
a rapid untreatable devastating disease
its known as mad cow disease

a mad cow like disease is also found in wild deer elk and moose

now do you see the connection

if you are a cattle person you know about mad cow disease
most deer hunters have heard of chronic wasting disease in deer

now its starting to show up in more and more states
some folks call it zombie deer disease
the deer wastes away salivates a lot stares out into nowhere in a zombie like state
if there are deer around the disease will spread
you cant stop it

its now in 24 states

theoretically it could spread to humans via contact with the deers meat and body fluids
it is a prion protein disease that could potentially spread to humans like the mad cow version
no reported cases have made
but many believe its just a matter of time before that happens

so if you are a deer hunter
if you kill a sick deer dont touch it without gloves and dont eat the meat

be even more cautious if you live in a state where it has spread to already

as an aside here
some researchers think that alzheimers may have been spread from patient to patient via contaminated surgical instruments in the past via these prion proteins that may be associated with alzheimers disease
you dont get alzheimers from eating contaminated meat with the prion protein but the disease you can get the cjd is much worse than alzheimers disease
its a faster and more furious disease

here is a link to cdc article on chronic wasting disease in deer
there is a map of what states have had cases and a list of the counties
yes
readers from texas arkansas colorado missouri yall are on the list

the organicgreen doctor