Readers' Comments

This smiling moron is a DISGRACE to her gender. The Republicans keep insisting that they are going to re-brand themselves and win a larger share of the electorate in 2016??
DREAM ON. You have just alienated the women's vote for your entire state, don't you get that?? Of course you don't. And the nitwit who introduced this bill had better enjoy the short time she has left in office, because she just voted herself out.
UN-F**CKING-BELIEVABLE.

The only reason all this debate is even alive is that it's been long enough - and memories are either old or people have died! - to remember the horrors of pre Roe v Wade... Many young people, both male & female, were woefully uninformed about sex and birth control - the climate was just "wait until marriage" and there was no discussion. I had a friend who got pregnant as a freshman in college, when she had 2 mixed drinks at a frat party (the first time she ever drank alcohol). She had no idea she can't handle alcohol and passed out cold, at which point 3 boys carried her off to another room, gang-raped her, and left her. She had no idea what had happened - had to hear it from others at the party - and didn't realize she was pregnant when she began getting sick. She didn't even know HOW someone got pregnant, and had never done more than kiss one boy. The one clinic visit that identified her pregnancy was the only medical visit check she got; she wore tight jeans and big sweatshirts, and went to her classes. She was so innocent and ignorant she tried to abort the baby herself - by doing jumping jacks until she was exhausted, by running up and down the mountain to the giant "M" representing the town, and by stuffing cotton balls up her vagina to "suffocate the baby". Eventually, after school let out for the summer (at which time she was 8 mo's pregnant but didn't show as such) her parents found out about her condition. She wanted to know options to possibly keep the baby, since she was unavoidably having it, but in the climate of the times she was shipped off to an unwed mothers' home in Spokane, WA, and her baby was taken away and adopted out. Yeah, folks, she enjoyed her sojourn into 60's freedom! Give me a break! This is not a step forward, but a draconian step back into times of deep ignorance and cruelty.

In the article she claims abortions were popular in the 60's. Abortions were ILLEGAL in the 60's and women were dying from hack jobs. Wake up. Abortions are down because we have provided our daughters with birth control options which many were not available when we were their ages.

Thursday, June 13, 2013

WISCONSIN DEER FARMING Chronic Wasting Disease CWD DATCP

http://chronic-wasting-disease.blogspot.com/2013/06/wisconsin-deer-farming-chronic-wasting.html

kind regards,
terry

*** The potential impact of prion diseases on human health was greatly magnified by the recognition that interspecies transfer of BSE to humans by beef ingestion resulted in vCJD. While changes in animal feed constituents and slaughter practices appear to have curtailed vCJD, there is concern that CWD of free-ranging deer and elk in the U.S. might also cross the species barrier. Thus, consuming venison could be a source of human prion disease. Whether BSE and CWD represent interspecies scrapie transfer or are newly arisen prion diseases is unknown. Therefore, the possibility of transmission of prion disease through other food animals cannot be ruled out. There is evidence that vCJD can be transmitted through blood transfusion. There is likely a pool of unknown size of asymptomatic individuals infected with vCJD, and there may be asymptomatic individuals infected with the CWD equivalent. These circumstances represent a potential threat to blood, blood products, and plasma supplies.

http://cdmrp.army.mil/prevfunded/nprp/NPRP_Summit_Final_Report.pdf

The chances of a person or domestic animal contracting CWD are “extremely remote,” Richards said. The possibility can’t be ruled out, however. “One could look at it like a game of chance,” he explained. “The odds (of infection) increase over time because of repeated exposure. That’s one of the downsides of having CWD in free-ranging herds: We’ve got this infectious agent out there that we can never say never to in terms of (infecting) people and domestic livestock.”

https://www.avma.org/News/JAVMANews/Pages/121201a.aspx

P35

ADAPTATION OF CHRONIC WASTING DISEASE (CWD) INTO HAMSTERS, EVIDENCE OF A WISCONSIN STRAIN OF CWD

Chad Johnson1, Judd Aiken2,3,4 and Debbie McKenzie4,5 1 Department of Comparative Biosciences, University of Wisconsin, Madison WI, USA 53706 2 Department of Agriculture, Food and Nutritional Sciences, 3 Alberta Veterinary Research Institute, 4.Center for Prions and Protein Folding Diseases, 5 Department of Biological Sciences, University of Alberta, Edmonton AB, Canada T6G 2P5

The identification and characterization of prion strains is increasingly important for the diagnosis and biological definition of these infectious pathogens. Although well-established in scrapie and, more recently, in BSE, comparatively little is known about the possibility of prion strains in chronic wasting disease (CWD), a disease affecting free ranging and captive cervids, primarily in North America. We have identified prion protein variants in the white-tailed deer population and demonstrated that Prnp genotype affects the susceptibility/disease progression of white-tailed deer to CWD agent. The existence of cervid prion protein variants raises the likelihood of distinct CWD strains. Small rodent models are a useful means of identifying prion strains. We intracerebrally inoculated hamsters with brain homogenates and phosphotungstate concentrated preparations from CWD positive hunter-harvested (Wisconsin CWD endemic area) and experimentally infected deer of known Prnp genotypes. These transmission studies resulted in clinical presentation in primary passage of concentrated CWD prions. Subclinical infection was established with the other primary passages based on the detection of PrPCWD in the brains of hamsters and the successful disease transmission upon second passage. Second and third passage data, when compared to transmission studies using different CWD inocula (Raymond et al., 2007) indicate that the CWD agent present in the Wisconsin white-tailed deer population is different than the strain(s) present in elk, mule-deer and white-tailed deer from the western United States endemic region.

http://www.istitutoveneto.it/prion_09/Abstracts_09.pdf

PPo3-7:

Prion Transmission from Cervids to Humans is Strain-dependent

Qingzhong Kong, Shenghai Huang,*Fusong Chen, Michael Payne, Pierluigi Gambetti and Liuting Qing Department of Pathology; Case western Reserve University; Cleveland, OH USA *Current address: Nursing Informatics; Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center; New York, NY USA

Key words: CWD, strain, human transmission

Chronic wasting disease (CWD) is a widespread prion disease in cervids (deer and elk) in North America where significant human exposure to CWD is likely and zoonotic transmission of CWD is a concern. Current evidence indicates a strong barrier for transmission of the classical CWD strain to humans with the PrP-129MM genotype. A few recent reports suggest the presence of two or more CWD strains. What remain unknown is whether individuals with the PrP-129VV/MV genotypes are also resistant to the classical CWD strain and whether humans are resistant to all natural or adapted cervid prion strains. Here we report that a human prion strain that had adopted the cervid prion protein (PrP) sequence through passage in cervidized transgenic mice efficiently infected transgenic mice expressing human PrP, indicating that the species barrier from cervid to humans is prion strain-dependent and humans can be vulnerable to novel cervid prion strains. Preliminary results on CWD transmission in transgenic mice expressing human PrP-129V will also be discussed.

Acknowledgement Supported by NINDS NS052319 and NIA AG14359.

PPo2-27:

Generation of a Novel form of Human PrPSc by Inter-species Transmission of Cervid Prions

Marcelo A. Barria,1 Glenn C. Telling,2 Pierluigi Gambetti,3 James A. Mastrianni4 and Claudio Soto1 1Mitchell Center for Alzheimer's disease and related Brain disorders; Dept of Neurology; University of Texas Houston Medical School; Houston, TX USA; 2Dept of Microbiology, Immunology & Molecular Genetics and Neurology; Sanders Brown Center on Aging; University of Kentucky Medical Center; Lexington, KY USA; 3Institute of Pathology; Case western Reserve University; Cleveland, OH USA; 4Dept of Neurology; University of Chicago; Chicago, IL USA

Prion diseases are infectious neurodegenerative disorders affecting humans and animals that result from the conversion of normal prion protein (PrPC) into the misfolded and infectious prion (PrPSc). Chronic wasting disease (CWD) of cervids is a prion disorder of increasing prevalence within the United States that affects a large population of wild and captive deer and elk. CWD is highly contagious and its origin, mechanism of transmission and exact prevalence are currently unclear. The risk of transmission of CWD to humans is unknown. Defining that risk is of utmost importance, considering that people have been infected by animal prions, resulting in new fatal diseases. To study the possibility that human PrPC can be converted into the infectious form by CWD PrPSc we performed experiments using the Protein Misfolding Cyclic Amplification (PMCA) technique, which mimic in vitro the process of prion replication. Our results show that cervid PrPSc can induce the pathological conversion of human PrPC, but only after the CWD prion strain has been stabilized by successive passages in vitro or in vivo. Interestingly, this newly generated human PrPSc exhibits a distinct biochemical pattern that differs from any of the currently known forms of human PrPSc, indicating that it corresponds to a novel human prion strain. Our findings suggest that CWD prions have the capability to infect humans, and that this ability depends on CWD strain adaptation, implying that the risk for human health progressively increases with the spread of CWD among cervids.

PPo2-7:

Biochemical and Biophysical Characterization of Different CWD Isolates

Martin L. Daus and Michael Beekes Robert Koch Institute; Berlin, Germany

Key words: CWD, strains, FT-IR, AFM

Chronic wasting disease (CWD) is one of three naturally occurring forms of prion disease. The other two are Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease in humans and scrapie in sheep. CWD is contagious and affects captive as well as free ranging cervids. As long as there is no definite answer of whether CWD can breach the species barrier to humans precautionary measures especially for the protection of consumers need to be considered. In principle, different strains of CWD may be associated with different risks of transmission to humans. Sophisticated strain differentiation as accomplished for other prion diseases has not yet been established for CWD. However, several different findings indicate that there exists more than one strain of CWD agent in cervids. We have analysed a set of CWD isolates from white-tailed deer and could detect at least two biochemically different forms of disease-associated prion protein PrPTSE. Limited proteolysis with different concentrations of proteinase K and/or after exposure of PrPTSE to different pH-values or concentrations of Guanidinium hydrochloride resulted in distinct isolate-specific digestion patterns. Our CWD isolates were also examined in protein misfolding cyclic amplification studies. This showed different conversion activities for those isolates that had displayed significantly different sensitivities to limited proteolysis by PK in the biochemical experiments described above. We further applied Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy in combination with atomic force microscopy. This confirmed structural differences in the PrPTSE of at least two disinct CWD isolates. The data presented here substantiate and expand previous reports on the existence of different CWD strains.

http://www.prion2010.org/bilder/prion_2010_program_latest_w_posters_4_.pdf?139&PHPSESSID=a30a38202cfec579000b77af81be3099

2012

Envt.06:

Zoonotic Potential of CWD: Experimental Transmissions to Non-Human Primates

Emmanuel Comoy,1,† Valérie Durand,1 Evelyne Correia,1 Aru Balachandran,2 Jürgen Richt,3 Vincent Beringue,4 Juan-Maria Torres,5 Paul Brown,1 Bob Hills6 and Jean-Philippe Deslys1

1Atomic Energy Commission; Fontenay-aux-Roses, France; 2Canadian Food Inspection Agency; Ottawa, ON Canada; 3Kansas State University; Manhattan, KS USA; 4INRA; Jouy-en-Josas, France; 5INIA; Madrid, Spain; 6Health Canada; Ottawa, ON Canada

†Presenting author; Email: emmanuel.comoy@cea.fr

The constant increase of chronic wasting disease (CWD) incidence in North America raises a question about their zoonotic potential. A recent publication showed their transmissibility to new-world monkeys, but no transmission to old-world monkeys, which are phylogenetically closer to humans, has so far been reported. Moreover, several studies have failed to transmit CWD to transgenic mice overexpressing human PrP. Bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) is the only animal prion disease for which a zoonotic potential has been proven. We described the transmission of the atypical BSE-L strain of BSE to cynomolgus monkeys, suggesting a weak cattle-to-primate species barrier. We observed the same phenomenon with a cattleadapted strain of TME (Transmissible Mink Encephalopathy). Since cattle experimentally exposed to CWD strains have also developed spongiform encephalopathies, we inoculated brain tissue from CWD-infected cattle to three cynomolgus macaques as well as to transgenic mice overexpressing bovine or human PrP. Since CWD prion strains are highly lymphotropic, suggesting an adaptation of these agents after peripheral exposure, a parallel set of four monkeys was inoculated with CWD-infected cervid brains using the oral route. Nearly four years post-exposure, monkeys exposed to CWD-related prion strains remain asymptomatic. In contrast, bovinized and humanized transgenic mice showed signs of infection, suggesting that CWD-related prion strains may be capable of crossing the cattle-to-primate species barrier. Comparisons with transmission results and incubation periods obtained after exposure to other cattle prion strains (c-BSE, BSE-L, BSE-H and cattle-adapted TME) will also be presented, in order to evaluate the respective risks of each strain.

Envt.07:

Pathological Prion Protein (PrPTSE) in Skeletal Muscles of Farmed and Free Ranging White-Tailed Deer Infected with Chronic Wasting Disease

Martin L. Daus,1,† Johanna Breyer,2 Katjs Wagenfuehr,1 Wiebke Wemheuer,2 Achim Thomzig,1 Walter Schulz-Schaeffer2 and Michael Beekes1 1Robert Koch Institut; P24 TSE; Berlin, Germany; 2Department of Neuropathology, Prion and Dementia Research Unit, University Medical Center Göttingen; Göttingen, Germany †Presenting author; Email: dausm@rki.de

Chronic wasting disease (CWD) is a contagious, rapidly spreading transmissible spongiform encephalopathy (TSE) occurring in cervids in North America. Despite efficient horizontal transmission of CWD among cervids natural transmission of the disease to other species has not yet been observed. Here, we report a direct biochemical demonstration of pathological prion protein PrPTSE and of PrPTSE-associated seeding activity in skeletal muscles of CWD-infected cervids. The presence of PrPTSE was detected by Western- and postfixed frozen tissue blotting, while the seeding activity of PrPTSE was revealed by protein misfolding cyclic amplification (PMCA). The concentration of PrPTSE in skeletal muscles of CWD-infected WTD was estimated to be approximately 2000- to 10000-fold lower than in brain tissue. Tissue-blot-analyses revealed that PrPTSE was located in muscle- associated nerve fascicles but not, in detectable amounts, in myocytes. The presence and seeding activity of PrPTSE in skeletal muscle from CWD-infected cervids suggests prevention of such tissue in the human diet as a precautionary measure for food safety, pending on further clarification of whether CWD may be transmissible to humans.

http://www.landesbioscience.com/journals/prion/Prion5-Supp-PrionEnvironment.pdf?nocache=1333529975

Friday, November 09, 2012

*** Chronic Wasting Disease CWD in cervidae and transmission to other species

http://chronic-wasting-disease.blogspot.com/2012/11/chronic-wasting-disease-cwd-in-cervidae.html

Sunday, November 11, 2012

*** Susceptibilities of Nonhuman Primates to Chronic Wasting Disease November 2012

http://chronic-wasting-disease.blogspot.com/2012/11/susceptibilities-of-nonhuman-primates.html

Friday, December 14, 2012

*** Susceptibility Chronic Wasting Disease (CWD) in wild cervids to Humans 2005 - December 14, 2012

http://chronic-wasting-disease.blogspot.com/2012/12/susceptibility-chronic-wasting-disease.html

Saturday, March 09, 2013

Chronic Wasting Disease in Bank Voles: Characterisation of the Shortest Incubation Time Model for Prion Diseases

http://chronic-wasting-disease.blogspot.com/2013/03/chronic-wasting-disease-in-bank-voles.html

Thursday, June 13, 2013

Experimental interspecies transmission studies of the transmissible spongiform encephalopathies to cattle: comparison to bovine spongiform encephalopathy in cattle

http://transmissiblespongiformencephalopathy.blogspot.com/2013/06/experimental-interspecies-transmission.html

CJD9/10022

October 1994

Mr R.N. Elmhirst Chairman British Deer Farmers Association Holly Lodge Spencers Lane BerksWell Coventry CV7 7BZ

Dear Mr Elmhirst,

CREUTZFELDT-JAKOB DISEASE (CJD) SURVEILLANCE UNIT REPORT

Thank you for your recent letter concerning the publication of the third annual report from the CJD Surveillance Unit. I am sorry that you are dissatisfied with the way in which this report was published.

The Surveillance Unit is a completely independant outside body and the Department of Health is committed to publishing their reports as soon as they become available. In the circumstances it is not the practice to circulate the report for comment since the findings of the report would not be amended. In future we can ensure that the British Deer Farmers Association receives a copy of the report in advance of publication.

The Chief Medical Officer has undertaken to keep the public fully informed of the results of any research in respect of CJD. This report was entirely the work of the unit and was produced completely independantly of the the Department.

The statistical results reqarding the consumption of venison was put into perspective in the body of the report and was not mentioned at all in the press release. Media attention regarding this report was low key but gave a realistic presentation of the statistical findings of the Unit. This approach to publication was successful in that consumption of venison was highlighted only once by the media ie. in the News at one television proqramme.

I believe that a further statement about the report, or indeed statistical links between CJD and consumption of venison, would increase, and quite possibly give damaging credence, to the whole issue. From the low key media reports of which I am aware it seems unlikely that venison consumption will suffer adversely, if at all.

http://web.archive.org/web/20030511010117/http://www.bseinquiry.gov.uk/files/yb/1994/10/00003001.pdf

now, let’s see what the authors said about this casual link, personal communications years ago. see where it is stated NO STRONG evidence. so, does this mean there IS casual evidence ????

“Our conclusion stating that we found no strong evidence of CWD transmission to humans”

From: TSS (216-119-163-189.ipset45.wt.net)

Subject: CWD aka MAD DEER/ELK TO HUMANS ???

Date: September 30, 2002 at 7:06 am PST

From: "Belay, Ermias"

To:

Cc: "Race, Richard (NIH)" ; ; "Belay, Ermias"

Sent: Monday, September 30, 2002 9:22 AM

Subject: RE: TO CDC AND NIH - PUB MED- 3 MORE DEATHS - CWD - YOUNG HUNTERS

Dear Sir/Madam,

In the Archives of Neurology you quoted (the abstract of which was attached to your email), we did not say CWD in humans will present like variant CJD.

That assumption would be wrong. I encourage you to read the whole article and call me if you have questions or need more clarification (phone: 404-639-3091). Also, we do not claim that "no-one has ever been infected with prion disease from eating venison." Our conclusion stating that we found no strong evidence of CWD transmission to humans in the article you quoted or in any other forum is limited to the patients we investigated.

Ermias Belay, M.D. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

-----Original Message-----

From:

Sent: Sunday, September 29, 2002 10:15 AM

To: rr26k@nih.gov; rrace@niaid.nih.gov; ebb8@CDC.GOV

Subject: TO CDC AND NIH - PUB MED- 3 MORE DEATHS - CWD - YOUNG HUNTERS

Sunday, November 10, 2002 6:26 PM ......snip........end..............TSS

Thursday, April 03, 2008

A prion disease of cervids: Chronic wasting disease

2008 1: Vet Res. 2008 Apr 3;39(4):41

A prion disease of cervids: Chronic wasting disease

Sigurdson CJ.

snip...

*** twenty-seven CJD patients who regularly consumed venison were reported to the Surveillance Center***,

snip...

full text ;

http://chronic-wasting-disease.blogspot.com/2008/04/prion-disease-of-cervids-chronic.html

http://chronic-wasting-disease.blogspot.com/2006_12_01_archive.html

TSS

When was the last time ALEC actively promoted a bail bonds bill? This article implies that it still actively does so. Is that the case, or is SourceWatch just trying to make a non-story seem somehow sexy and relevant? I ask because, as another commenter here points out, without bail bonds a lot of poor criminal defendants would be forced to cool their heels in jail while awaiting trial, would they not?

The reason the number of test on deer have gone down is the test Is being done on sick deer and deer in infected areas,not just random testing. So therefor positive test will be higher. And cost for testing will have gone down.

To see just how out of touch Vukmir is search youtube for "Vukmir thefingerpointer"

Or just see this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mGhgePCGJWY

Vukmir is an embarrassment to Wisconsin.

.

Doesn't seem as much a problem as made out... IF: Surveillance is limited to contact information and not actual conversations/text and IF: Surveillance is limited to contact information directly connected to terrorist personnel or organizations. This is what was stated. My opinion may/will change with new information. At this point, I support the plea from communications companies to allow them to verify what information they're giving up under FISA orders.

BTW, I think that, if you listen to "the cops" (by whatever title) more invasive actions are always necessary - and that's because their task is to protect, and the only way to do that completely is to control everything. So judicial involvement is essential. That said, if only one side is represented, as it is now, it becomes similar to a Grand Jury event rather than a hearing and liberty suffers.

This one of the most erroneous articles I've ever read. My wife and kids would be disheartened to hear that their husband and father is a loan shark and that he is involved in a corrupt business such as bail bonds. As a bail agent in Colorado for the last 35 years I've come to know quite a few bail agents and most are Christians with families. They contribute to their communities just like a postal worker or a secretary or whatever.

On the other hand I often hear on the news about a peace officer being in trouble for sexual assault, domestic violence or some other crime but we don't hold that against the other good peace officers. Colorado courts and Pretrial Services accuse bail agents of every evil thing they can think of for one reason. They want to take over bail so they can get the money to run their ever growing tax sucking system.

To the best of my knowledge there are NO Dem ALEC members. There were only one or two up till a few years ago, and the last one resigned and wanted no part of this very EVIL Right Wing lunatic organization, who sneaks pro corporate ANI CONSUMER legislation to the legislators to be passed in the secret of the night.

Americans all over the country have been seriously hurt from this. The Koch Bros. Herman Cain and a slew of right wingers are big shots with this terrible outfit for years.

They have written and sponsored much of the legislation that has supressed the vote everywhere.

Just think what happened after the 2010 election.

Those who didn't vote are paying the price dearly for it today.

As a result ALEC and the filth Scott Brown that governs Wisconsin have done grave damage to the state.

Anonymous,you are the gullible idiot who doesn't see that any legislator who is in ALEC's pocket is a danger to the constituents that put the individual in office. Furthermore, your comment about the medicinal efficacy of Cannabis shows just how truly clueless you are. As someone who has worked with people who were battling the ill effects of chemo and radiation I can vouch for the benefits of the herb. You are the vacuous type that the Tea Party likes to recruit. No brains and easy to indoctrinate.