Excerpted from the MN Outdoor News special section this week, by Rob Drieslein:
Living and working at the epicenter of chronic wasting disease (CWD) endemic area in southeastern Wyoming hasn’t stopped Dr. Terry Kreeger from hunting and eating venison.
Speaking at the MN CWD Conference in Grand Rapids last month, Kreeger, a researcher and veterinarian with the Wyoming Game and Fish Department, said this: “Forgive me if I’m somewhat nonchalant about this,… I consider this a media-driven disease.”
And perhaps most telling, rates of spontaneous Creutzfeldt-Jacob among the human population in the endemic CWD area of Wyoming and Colorado are actually lower than the national average, he said. Three separate studies have never found the CWD prion in venison meat.
This a photo caption of Kreeger and a captive deer: As part of his research in Wyoming, Dr. Terry Kreeger has worked very closely with animals infected with chronic wasting disease. He also lives, hunts and raises horses in the heart of the CWD-endemic area of southeastern Wyoming. From a personal standpoint, he says, “If I thought it could infect me, I wouldn’t live here.”
© Chronic Wasting Disease Alliance