Download ADH | CWD Fact Sheet - Arkansas Game and Fish Commission

Arkansas Department of Health
4815 West Markham Street ● Little Rock, Arkansas 72205-3867 ● Telephone (501) 661-2000
Governor Asa Hutchinson
Nathaniel Smith, MD, MPH, Director and State Health Officer
CHRONIC WASTING DISEASE
What is Chronic Wasting Disease?
Chronic Wasting Disease (CWD) is a disease caused by prions (infectious proteins) that affects North
American cervids (mule deer, white-tailed deer, elk, and moose). Prion proteins are found in the brains
of normal healthy animals. However, the functions of these normal prion proteins are still not
completely understood. Prion disease occurs when the normal prion proteins fold abnormally which
leads to brain damage and the characteristic signs and symptoms of the disease.
Prion diseases are usually rapidly progressive and always fatal. CWD can be highly transmissible within
deer and elk populations. The mode of transmission is not fully understood, but evidence seems to
indicate that the disease is spread through direct animal-to-animal contact or as a result of indirect
exposure to prions in the environment (e.g., in contaminated feed and water sources).
Is CWD dangerous to humans?
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) along with the World Health Organization (WHO)
have studied CWD and have found no evidence that CWD poses a serious risk to humans or domestic
animals. Years of monitoring in affected areas have found no increases in similar diseases of people or
cattle living there. However, as a precaution, CDC and the Arkansas Department of Health advise that
no part of a deer or elk with evidence of CWD should be consumed by people or other animals.
Why shouldn't I eat certain parts of my deer and elk?
While research has shown that prions may be present in a wide variety of tissues and body fluids,
including blood and muscle, they are most common in the brain, eyes, spinal cord, lymph nodes, tonsils
and spleen. Thus, it is recommended that hunters wear gloves and debone harvested cervids in the
field, and take extra precautions when handling organs where prions are most likely to accumulate.
If you wish to have your animal tested for CWD, contact Arkansas Game and Fish Commission for
information regarding appropriate procedures and submission locations. Remember, while disease
testing is an important tool for detecting CWD, it is not a food safety test.
Simple Precautions Advised for Hunters
Public health officials advise hunters not to consume meat from animals believed or known to be,
infected with CWD or any other disease. Since it’s not always apparent that a deer may be carrying a
disease, hunters should take simple precautions.
•
Avoid consuming the meat from any animal that tests positive for the disease.
•
Do not eat an animal that was thought to be sick at the time of harvest. Avoid/limit handling of
carcasses of sick animals.
•
Contact Arkansas Game and Fish Commission if you encounter an animal that appears sick.
Precautions That Hunters Should Always Follow:
•
Wear latex or rubber gloves when field dressing your deer or elk.
•
Debone your animal. Don't saw through bone, and avoid cutting through the brain or spinal
cord (backbone).
•
Minimize the handling of brain and spinal tissues.
•
Wash hands and instruments thoroughly after field dressing is completed. The best
recommendation for hunters wishing to disinfect home butchering equipment is to clean all
surfaces with a 50/50 solution of chlorine bleach and water.
•
Avoid consuming brain, spinal cord, eyes, spleen, tonsils and lymph nodes of harvested animals.
(Normal field dressing coupled with deboning a carcass will remove most, if not all, of these
body parts. Cutting away all fatty tissue will remove remaining lymph nodes.)
•
If you have your deer or elk commercially processed, request that your animal is processed
individually, without meat from other animals being added to meat from your animal.
Disposal of carcass
Little is known about whether infected cervid parts pose a risk to the environment; researchers have
discovered that prions readily adhere to various elements in the soil and remain infectious for many
years. Therefore, it is recommended that bones and other parts of the carcass of an animal suspected
or known to have CWD be double bagged in strong garbage bags and disposed of at a landfill with an
approved dead animal disposal area.
FOR MORE INFORMATION:
Arkansas Department of Health, Zoonotic Disease Section
Phone: (501) 661-2000 or (800) 462-0599
Visit our website at: www.healthy.arkansas.gov
or CDC’s website at: www.cdc.gov