Just passing this along as a caution.  I received this on a reputable
wildlife rehabilitation list, but don't know about its accuracy.  I know lots
of paleolisters hunt and eat deer, and thought they might appreciate the
heads-up.  I'm sure you can do your own research if this might affect you ...

Holly

(had to divide into 2 messages to get it posted)

> >
> >Mad Deer Disease Spreads To Wisconsin? -
> >Infected Venison Can Be Fatal
> >http://www.sightings.com/general2/ven.htm    Disease in
> >animals is ubiquitous at present, far more than is being
> >admitted.  It is a clearing process and will accelerate.
> >Keep watching for information on this.
> >------------------------------------------------------------
> >------------  Rense.com
> >------------------------------------------------------------
> >------------
> >  Mad Deer Disease
> >  Spreads To Wisconsin? -
> >  Infected Venison Can Be Fatal
> >
> >  By Brian McCombie
> >  Isthmus newspaper Madison, Wisconsin (7-13-00)
> >      http://www.purefood.org/meat/wisdeer.cfm
> >
> >          Imagine a disease worse than AIDS rippling through
> >Wisconsin's deer herd. One that's always fatal, cannot be
> >tested for in live animals, and has the chance of spreading
> >to anyone who eats the infected venison. Sound like the
> >premise for Michael Crichton's next apocalyptic thriller?
> >
> >          Unfortunately, such a disease already exists in
> >epidemic levels in the wilds of Colorado and Wyoming. It's
> >infected some game farms, too, and Wisconsin game farmers
> >have imported more than 350 elk with the potential for this
> >disease, including elk from farms known to be infected.
> >
> >          "If most people knew what kind of risk this
> >disease poses to free-ranging deer in the state, they'd be
> >very concerned," says Dr. Sarah Hurley, Lands Division
> >administrator for the Department of Natural Resources. The
> >DNR is now testing free-ranging deer around these game farms
> >for the disease: "We're focusing our energies on those areas
> >where we think there's the greatest possibility of
> >transmission."
> >
> >          The malady the DNR's looking for is chronic
> >wasting disease (CWD)--better known, to the extent it is
> >known at all, as mad elk disease. It's a form of the mad cow
> >disease that devastated Britain's cattle industry in the
> >1980s, scared the bejesus out of the populace, and is
> >believed to have killed at least 70 people to date. An elk
> >or deer with CWD can be listless, may walk in circles, will
> >lose weight and interact progressively less with fellow
> >animals.
> >
> >          The corresponding human affliction is called
> >Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (pronounced Croytz-feld Yawkob) or
> >CJD. People with CJD experience symptoms similar to
> >Alzheimer's, including memory loss and depression, followed
> >by rapidly progressive dementia and death, usually within
> >one year. While CJD is rare (literally one in a million odds
> >of getting it), over the last few years at least three deer
> >hunters have died of it. There is no proof either way
> >whether they contracted the disease from CWD-infected
> >venison, but new research says it is possible.
> >
> >          All three varieties--mad cow, mad elk and
> >CJD--belong to a family of diseases called transmissible
> >spongiform encephalopathy. These diseases alter the
> >conformation of proteins in the brain called prions;
> >after-death brain samples usually show a series of
> >microscopic holes in and around brain cells.
> >