CWD Near Waukesha County Not a Problem
Gus Tredinger has declared that Chronic Wasting Disease is not as bad as many seem to believe. In fact, according to him, it’s quite tasty, and the meat of infected deer tends to be more succulent. “I just don’t know what all hub-bub’s about,” he said while buying ammunition and deer food at a local sporting goods store. “I’ve eaten deer my whole life, and I don’t have any chronic signs of wasting away.”
The disease itself is always fatal in deer and is caused by proteinaceous infectious particles. Affected deer are adults, and they tend to have symptoms such as listlessness, blank facial expression, and repetitive walking in set patterns, not unlike the hunters who hunt them. According to Tredinger, this makes the deer easy targets. “They just walk back and forth in front of you asking to get shot,” he quipped. “I put them out of their misery and they feed my family.”
While no proof exists that the disease can be transferred to humans, some in the public health sector have pointed to Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease and Mad-Cow Disease in humans as evidence for avoiding infected deer. However, only 120 people have ever contracted the Mad-Cow variant of Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease, and they have all been in Europe. “Think about it,” Gus said, “Europe’s a big country, and every one of those people died doing what they love—eating beef. I’d consider myself lucky if I died because of something I love, like getting shot by a friend in our ambush crossfire sector of the woods. Or getting thrown from my ATV after hanging out with my buddies at the watering hole. Or even eating an infected 12 pointer and having my brain melt while I’m still alive.”
The Wisconsin DNR and the World Health Organization have issued warnings to avoid eating tissues from the brain, spinal cord, eyes, spleen, tonsils and lymph nodes, since that’s where the disease resides. A spokesman for the Wisconsin DNR confirmed that Wisconsin has had no cases of hunters or their families coming down with any Chronic Wasting Disease symptoms, but he did assert that a number of hunters do die each year while slamming their ATVs or snowmobiles into trees after drinking. While driving into trees or onto thin ice may be signs of poor decision making, no evidence exists to link this behavior to the deer hunters eat.
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