Wildlife officials in Tennessee are implementing an emergency plan after at least 13 cases of chronic wasting disease were discovered in deer.
Source: Deer disease found in Tennessee counties
I realize that I have “Spread the Good News” and “Permaculture” at the bottom of each of these posts. And I have been criticized for being on the negative side with things. But I also believe that information is not always positive. And I may post too much on pesticides but that’s just my personal focus.
The disease mentioned above is mad cow disease but in deer. It was introduced to deer in cattle feed that was put out to help the deer survive harsh winters. It is a prion disease and we know very little about it. About how it is spread, about what the inoculating dose is, about the time required for it to manifest symptoms, about how similar it is in many ways to alzheimer’s disease, etc etc. It is particularly bad up in the Midwest and that’s where most of the news articles I look for come from. This one is as far south as Tennessee.
Some of you with kids who are bright, intelligent, and interested in biology –encourage them to go into research on prion diseases. They will be increasing in severity in the next few years.
And if you live in the midwest or in Tennessee now. I might think hard before eating wild venison unless you think that evolution should not be taught in public schools :-)