Chronic wasting disease in deer, elk, reindeer, caribou and moose is on the rise in three Canadian provinces. No human has yet been infected, but are governments taking the threat seriously?
Since 2010, the Saskatoon Wildlife Federation’s “Hunt 4 Hunger” program has donated some 32,000 lb. of frozen, ground game meat—deer and moose—to the Saskatoon Food Bank. It’s accepted with gratitude, says Laurie O’Connor, the food bank’s executive director. The facility serves 19,000 people per month and doesn’t generally have access to high-quality protein: “It’s great to be able to offer it during hunting season,” she says.
No human case of CWD has been identified, but transmission to humans cannot be excluded, according to an ongoing study on macaque monkeys led by Stefanie Czub, head of the virology section at the Canadian Food Inspection Agency. The primates developed CWD when fed muscle meat from CWD-infected deer that appeared healthy. Preliminary results in 2017 prompted a Health Canada advisory that “CWD, under specific experimental conditions, has the potential to cross the human species barrier.
CWD has been a big issue for hunters for a number of years, Kincade says, though there is no mention of CWD on the federation’s website. “There still isn’t any proof that it can be transferred to humans or hurt us,” he says, allowing he’s not familiar with the primate study. “We’ve probably been eating CWD-infected animals for a while, but there’s nothing to prove that, either. There doesn’t seem to be much you can do at the moment.
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