The Deadly Nature of Chronic Wasting Disease Essay -- Exploratory Essa

The Deadly Nature of Chronic Wasting Disease The newly born fawn, still wet with milk on its lips, suddenly tumbles over from the huge impact of the .300 weatherby rifle. Next, goes a small two point, followed by a fat doe packing twins. As the rest of the herd trots off, the big four point buck gets his last taste of life. This, all a result of the rifleman atop the hill who has begun the culling of deer to control Chronic Wasting Disease. The recent outbreaks of Chronic Wasting Disease on Colorado's commercial elk herds, is considered to be the worst ever. Biologists are trying to find out what this means to the wild herds of deer and elk on the Western Slope. Unfortunately, so far, the only method of treatment that has been discovered is complete eradication of the entire herd. Now, scientists are wondering if Chronic Wasting Disease (CWD) is a disease that has been around forever, or do we need to spend millions of dollars on the research (Herring, 2002). Research and Background The origin of CWD is unknown at this day and age, but it was first discovered by researchers in a Colorado research facility in the late 1960's. Researcher's say that wildlife diseases seem to have a way of going undetected or unnoticed. The early cases of CWD were found in northeastern Colorado and southeastern Wyoming. Commercial elk herds in Colorado, Kansas, Montana, Nebraska, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Saskatchewan, and Alberta have been diagnosed with CWD. Although, South Dakota, Wisconsin, Wyoming, Colorado, Nebraska, New Mexico, and Saskatewan have found cases of CWD in their state's wild deer herds. CWD is a brain and nervous system disease that is very fatal, and occurs in deer and elk. It is very similar to Mad Cow Disease becaus... ...rch 16, 2004, from Chronic Wasting Disease: Moving on: http://www.cwd-info.org/pdf/WYcwdarticle.pdf Madson, C. "CWD's impact on deer herds". Retrieved March 16, 2004, from Chronic Wasting Disease: Moving on: http://www.cwd-info.org/pdf/WYcwdarticle.pdf Meredith, T. "Managing CWD". Retrieved March 16, 2004, from Chronic Wasting Disease: Moving on: http://www.cwd-info.org/pdf/WYcwdarticle.pdf Meredith, T. "New research". Retrieved March 16, 2004, from Chronic Wasting Disease: Moving on: http://www.cwd-info.org/pdf/WYcwdarticle.pdf Reed, T. "Risk to humans". Retrieved March 16, 2004, from Chronic Wasting Disease: Moving on: http://www.cwd-info.org/pdf/WYcwdarticle.pdf Zitek, M. & Reed, T. "Surveillance and regulations". Retrieved March 16, 2004, from Chronic Wasting Disease: Moving on: http://www.cwdinfo.org/info.org/pdf/ WYcwdarticle.pdf