Here's a scary news item from Environmental News Service
http://ens-news.com/ens/may2000/2000L-05-16-09.html

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MAD DEER DISEASE COULD INFECT HUMANS

WASHINGTON, DC, May 16, 2000 (ENS) - A disease in Western deer and elk
populations has been linked to so called mad cow disease, and may be spread
to humans, the Center for Food Safety (CFS) and the Humane Farming
Association are warning. A fatal "mad deer" disease called chronic wasting
disease is occurring at epidemic levels in deer and elk in Western states and
on game farms, CFS legal director Joseph Mendelson wrote in the letter to the
Food and Drug Administration (FDA). This may already be claiming human lives
in the form of young victims of Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (CJD), the human
form of mad cow disease. Laboratory tests show that mad deer disease can
infect human brain tissue.

"The announcement that U.S. mad deer disease can infect the human brain, and
that it happens at a rate similar to British mad cow disease, is extremely
disturbing," said John Stauber, co-author of "Mad Cow USA." "A deadly human
dementia might be already spreading from deer and elk into hunters in Western
states, and the policies of the FDA and other agencies are completely
inadequate to protect public health." The groups are demanding that the FDA
close loopholes in animal feed regulations to prevent the spread of mad cow
type diseases. Under current FDA regulations, animals known to be infected
with mad cow type disease can be legally fed to pigs, chickens and pets,
which in turn can be rendered and fed to cows. Billions of pounds of
slaughterhouse waste in the form of rendered animal byproducts are fed to
U.S. livestock every year as fat and protein supplements.