We usually hear about Chronic Wasting Disease in relation to hunting and deer herds.
Trying to control the disease even nationwide has been challenging amid fears of its potentially deadly impact on the deer population.
Gary Sinderson has more on the ongoing research.
“No surprise is a very difficult problem. I share frustration, we have no simpler techniques to stop it”
Richard Roush, the Dean of Penn State School of Agricultural Science, this week at a hearing in Harrisburg on Chronic Wasting Disease
“I think the general population, hunters,understand this is an issue because we want to make sure the disease does not make the jump to humans”
CWD, first detected in Pennsylvania in 2012 continues to be found in more deer. Researching the disease in the wild is difficult partially because the deer population, as hunters know is a moving target
“With more CWD, the testing demands are increasing, additionally while human sustainability to CWD is unknown, and testing isn’t valid for food safety, it’s important to get test results back to hunters quickly”
One question raised, can recent covid related research on the virus provide new information on CWD.
“I think the enormous success in MRNA viruses in covid illustrates its a new technology, there has been hope to develop other MRNA viruses against other diseases, such as HIV, AIDS”
Researchers also working on developing a rapid testing system for CWD, that hunters could use out in the field.
