Written By - Tom Remington - 02/18/2008
Link to Original Article here

It is a real shame that we as a society have come to the point where we perceive lying as a good thing, something that we use as a tool to see a result. In other words, the end justifies the means.

Dr. Gail Saltz says we begin learning to lie at about age 4 or 5. We discover that lying gives us power in the selection of our words. Adults lie for various reasons but an interesting point that Saltz makes is the expectations of our society and who we might expect to lie and who we hold to a higher standard.

We expect, for example, less honesty from politicians than from scientists. We have a vision of purity about those who are doing research, while we imagine that politicians will at least shade the truth about themselves in order to get elected.

I think Saltz, if given the time, would also add to that politicians' list the need to lie in order promote political agendas and achieve personal gain.

Animal disease is a great tool to manipulate public opinion. The reason is simple really. People don't like disease and often it is feared and if presented to the masses of people in a particular way could incite riots. Obviously there are times when people need to be made very much aware of the dangers concerning disease and animals, especially if it is animals we eat. We want to know about beef recalls and things like mad cow disease, etc..

One disease that many people don't know about that occurs in wild animals such as deer, elk and moose is chronic wasting disease. The truth is very few people know anything about it. Those who do are more than likely hunters and ranchers, along with wildlife biologists and a few politicians who might see an opportunity to use the disease for political gain.

Using disease to instill fear in people in order to achieve agendas of politics and/or personal goals is a lousy thing to do. Unfortunately, politics is a dirty profession and as Dr. Saltz says, we as a society expect nothing better from the likes of such politicians. I suppose this is why they do it a lot and are good at it.

Three states that I am aware of are in the midst of debates about the relationship with disease and the domestic cervid industry - cervid in these cases meaning deer and elk. Those three states are Idaho, North Dakota and Oregon. There may be more. Certain groups or individuals want to shut down these industries for various reasons but all of them like to throw out the fears of disease tactic.

Chronic wasting disease is only one of them and I'd like to give you an example of how this is done by a politician. Sen. David Langhorst of Idaho has been on a campaign for some time to rid the state of Idaho of the domestic elk industry. Over the past couple of years he has resorted to varying degrees of assorted reasons why there shouldn't be domestic elk in Idaho. He's tried taking off large chunks in efforts to end it all immediately to settling more for the incremental approach, much the same way as the groups like PETA and the Humane Society of the United States have done.

Mr. Langhorst has taken up blogging, I suppose for much the same reasons that I do, to provide a platform where people can come and read about issues and discuss them. Lanhort's blog can be found on the Idaho Statesman's website.

A few days ago, he posted a blog called, "Elk for Sale" and has garnered some debate and comments from an array of readers.

The post was a great fiction piece in which he attempts to scare readers into painting a picture of what it is like in Idaho on these elk ranches he so despises. But it is later on down in the comment sections when he begins presenting more, what he calls, facts. He even titles it, "Elk Farm Diseases: True or False?"

I don't have time right now to go through everyone of his claims of facts so, I will address only his presentation of facts about chronic wasting disease in an attempt to inform readers of the truth about the disease.

The first documented case of CWD was in a confined deer pen in Ft. Collins, CO. (true; there is speculation that the facility had previously held sheep infected with scrapie, a CWD-like disease)

Some of those deer were let loose, for whatever reason. (true)

The first known area of widespread CWD in wild deer and elk was in the area around Ft. Collins. (true)

CWD continues to spread outward from that area, infecting the Wyoming/Colorado/Nebraska deer and elk herds. (true; this is why some claim that wild elk are more likely to bring disease to Idaho.)

In the 1990s, Colorado game farms shipped elk infected with CWD to other states, where CWD was consequently found in game farms. (true)

As of 2007, all states where CWD had been found in wild animals also had game farms (true)

As of 2007, there were three states where CWD was documented in game farm animals and NOT yet found in wild game (MN, OK, KY) (true)

If I may be bold enough to clarify some of Mr. Langhorst's claims of fact.

In 1967 a wasting syndrome was first recognized in mule deer in a research laboratory near Ft. Collins, Colorado. It wasn't until 1978 that scientists (Dr. Beth Williams) actually recognized this syndrome as a Transmissible Spongiform Encephalopathy (TSE).

As it is written in most every scientific writing about the origins of CWD, it is not documented nor confirmed where CWD comes from. Chronic Wasting Disease Alliance states that, "modeling suggests the disease may have been present in free-ranging populations of mule deer for more than 40 years." They further go on to explain that CWD is just as likely to be a spontaneous event that could have happened in the wild or in captivity.

It may be possible that CWD is a spontaneous TSE that arose in deer in the wild or in captivity and has biological features promoting transmission to other deer and elk.

Dr. Trent Bollinger describes the origins of CWD in this fashion.

Where or how CWD originated is not known. One explanation is that CWD is actually sheep scrapie occurring in cervids. It could also have originated from a prion disease in another species which has not yet been discovered. Alternatively, the disease may have developed independently in cervids with spontaneous converison PrP C to the resistant form and then subsequent spread to other individuals.

Langhorst alludes to the idea that infected sheep may have been the carriers of TSE in scrapie but once again science does not clearly support that theory. They are not even sure that the TSE can be passed back and forth.

It should be pointed out that the reason the disease was discovered in this lab was because of research. The disease wasn't even heard of by this time. It wasn't as though scientists were testing wild and domestic deer for a disease they hadn't heard of yet. Where would be a likely place to first discover such a disease? As with most diseases, in a lab.

The area around Ft. Collins and in northeastern Colorado and southeastern Wyoming became known as the "CWD endemic area". I have no record of the deer within this one facility being released. Official records have stated that they do not know whether the disease, which by the way occurs naturally, was already present in free ranging wild populations of mule deer. Scientific models done in 2000 indicate that CWD was prevalent in the wild for at least 30 years.

While it is true that there has been some spreading of the disease "naturally" outside the "CWD endemic area", scientists say that this is insignificant. Scientists once again speculate that they believe most of the cases of CWD showing up far from the "CWD endemic area" came from uncontrolled, unregulated shipments of diseased animals.

However, wildlife surveillance begun in earnest in 1997 by wildlife agencies led to detection of CWD outside of the historic endemic area.

Langhorst doesn't provide any links to substantiate his claims so it is difficult to know exactly of what he is writing and when. Documented history shows that the first recorded event of CWD found in domestic elk occurred in 1997 in South Dakota. Surveillance has indicated that diseased elk were shipped from South Dakota to Saskatchewan. It was after the South Dakota event that CWD was found in farmed elk in Colorado.

People should be made aware that during this time, little was known about CWD and therefore it took some time before it was discovered that diseased animals were being shipped across the country and the impact the disease can have on wild and domestic ungulates.

Mr. Langhorst tosses out claims of which states have CWD and which states have elk ranches etc., which provides for some wild speculation but it still proves nothing from a scientific perspective. Science says that they probably will never know the origins of the disease. They have yet to fully understand the complexities of how the disease is passed from one animal to another.

It is easy to sit here and say that all states that have elk farms also have CWD, which is only an attempt to convince readers that elk farms are the origin of the disease and the cause of the spread and that simply is not true. It is quite unfair to force one's speculation on others as facts.

If Mr. Langhorst had chosen to be completely forthcoming in his facts, he would have also explained to readers that in some of the states he claims that have documented cases of CWD in elk ranches, they don't test any of the wild ungulates for disease and those that do are often times are sparsely done.

As with all livestock programs, when diseases are recognized, efforts are put forth to understand, diagnose and deal with it to limit or halt the spread. This was successfully done in the Saskatchewan elk industry. With continued improvements to testing and further studies to help scientists understand how the disease is spread and how to stop it, there is hope for a good clean industry.

As states, such as Idaho, that have a great track record in keeping their industry free of CWD, it shows how a livestock industry can continue to grow and flourish and there's no need to try to scare the people into believing things that simply aren't true.

Tom Remington