March 19, 2019 — The Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy (CIDRAP) at the University of Minnesota announced today that it has launched the Chronic Wasting Disease Response, Research and Policy Program (CWD Program) to respond to this wildlife disease crisis and its potential for animal-to-human and human-to-human transmission.
CWD is a prion disease that affects several cervid species: deer, elk, reindeer, sika deer and moose. It has been found in some areas of North America, including three provinces in Canada and at least 26 states. Although CWD has not yet been found to cause infections in humans, numerous health agencies advise that people should not be consuming CWD-positive animals.
“We believe it is possible that human cases of CWD associated with the consumption of CWD-contaminated meat will be documented in the years ahead,” said Michael T. Osterholm, University of Minnesota Regents Professor, McKnight Presidential Endowed Chair in Public Health, and director of CIDRAP. “There is an immediate and critical need for national leadership on addressing CWD, and the CWD Program establishes the University of Minnesota as both the national and international center for CWD response, research, education and policy.”
The CWD Program will focus on:
•Providing coordinated and proactive national leadership with government agencies and others that identifies and defines priority policy, prevention, research and community outreach issues associated with CWD in animals and its potential for animal-to-human and human-to-human transmission;
•Educating the public, particularly hunters, the medical and public health communities, wildlife scientists and managers, public policymakers and elected officials about the potential risk of human CWD infection;
•Promoting extensive, reliable and rapid CWD prion detection tests for killed cervids before the deer are processed or consumed;
•Conducting primary prevention research on limiting the potential transmission of the CWD prion to humans and between animal species.
The CWD Program is made possible with support from the University of Minnesota Office of the Vice President for Research and the Office of the Vice President for Academic Clinical Affairs.
“I’m delighted that Dr. Osterholm has moved nimbly to expand CIDRAP’s impressive public-health scope of coverage to encompass the emerging research and policy concerns associated with Chronic Wasting Disease,” said Chris Cramer, vice president for research. “This effort will provide a critical foundation that will inform broader work on CWD on our campuses — including a University-wide task force to be launched this spring — in our state and region, and throughout North America.”
“CIDRAP’s ability to respond to the potential health crisis of CWD and help Minnesotans safely enjoy their love of the outdoors and hunting — both a tradition and a sport for so many — is integral to our mission as a land-grant University and our service to the state,” said Jakub Tolar, dean of the University of Minnesota Medical School and vice president for clinical affairs.
The University Task Force on CWD, led by Associate Vice President for Research Michael Oakes, will address the full range of diagnostic, clinical and public-health challenges associated with CWD, connecting with potential external partners and leveraging the considerable relevant strengths across its campuses and colleges in biology, wildlife ecology, veterinary medicine and zoonotic disease, public health, and medicine, as well as expertise in public policy and economics.
About the Center
for Infectious Disease
Research and Policy
The Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy is a global leader in addressing public health preparedness and emerging infectious disease response. Founded in 2001, CIDRAP is part of the Office of the Vice President for Research at the University of Minnesota.
Terry Singeltary says
> However, to date, no CWD infections have been reported in people.
key word here is ‘reported’. science has shown that CWD in humans will look like sporadic CJD. SO, how can one assume that CWD has not already transmitted to humans? they can’t, and it’s as simple as that. from all recorded science to date, CWD has already transmitted to humans, and it’s being misdiagnosed as sporadic CJD. …terry
*** LOOKING FOR CWD IN HUMANS AS nvCJD or as an ATYPICAL CJD, LOOKING IN ALL THE WRONG PLACES $$$ ***
*** These results would seem to suggest that CWD does indeed have zoonotic potential, at least as judged by the compatibility of CWD prions and their human PrPC target. Furthermore, extrapolation from this simple in vitro assay suggests that if zoonotic CWD occurred, it would most likely effect those of the PRNP codon 129-MM genotype and that the PrPres type would be similar to that found in the most common subtype of sCJD (MM1).***
http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.4161/pri.28124?src=recsys
http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/pdf/10.4161/pri.28124?needAccess=true
https://wwwnc.cdc.gov/eid/article/20/1/13-0858_article
Chronic Wasting Disease CWD TSE Prion aka mad deer disease zoonosis
We hypothesize that:
(1) The classic CWD prion strain can infect humans at low levels in the brain and peripheral lymphoid tissues;
(2) The cervid-to-human transmission barrier is dependent on the cervid prion strain and influenced by the host (human) prion protein (PrP) primary sequence;
(3) Reliable essays can be established to detect CWD infection in humans; and
(4) CWD transmission to humans has already occurred. We will test these hypotheses in 4 Aims using transgenic (Tg) mouse models and complementary in vitro approaches.
http://grantome.com/grant/NIH/R01-NS088604-04
ZOONOTIC CHRONIC WASTING DISEASE CWD TSE PRION UPDATE
here is the latest;
PRION 2018 CONFERENCE
Oral transmission of CWD into Cynomolgus macaques: signs of atypical disease, prion conversion and infectivity in macaques and bio-assayed transgenic mice
Hermann M. Schatzl, Samia Hannaoui, Yo-Ching Cheng, Sabine Gilch (Calgary Prion Research Unit, University of Calgary, Calgary, Canada) Michael Beekes (RKI Berlin), Walter Schulz-Schaeffer (University of Homburg/Saar, Germany), Christiane Stahl-Hennig (German Primate Center) & Stefanie Czub (CFIA Lethbridge).
To date, BSE is the only example of interspecies transmission of an animal prion disease into humans. The potential zoonotic transmission of CWD is an alarming issue and was addressed by many groups using a variety of in vitro and in vivo experimental systems. Evidence from these studies indicated a substantial, if not absolute, species barrier, aligning with the absence of epidemiological evidence suggesting transmission into humans. Studies in non-human primates were not conclusive so far, with oral transmission into new-world monkeys and no transmission into old-world monkeys. Our consortium has challenged 18 Cynomolgus macaques with characterized CWD material, focusing on oral transmission with muscle tissue. Some macaques have orally received a total of 5 kg of muscle material over a period of 2 years.
After 5-7 years of incubation time some animals showed clinical symptoms indicative of prion disease, and prion neuropathology and PrPSc deposition were detected in spinal cord and brain of some euthanized animals. PrPSc in immunoblot was weakly detected in some spinal cord materials and various tissues tested positive in RT-QuIC, including lymph node and spleen homogenates. To prove prion infectivity in the macaque tissues, we have intracerebrally inoculated 2 lines of transgenic mice, expressing either elk or human PrP. At least 3 TgElk mice, receiving tissues from 2 different macaques, showed clinical signs of a progressive prion disease and brains were positive in immunoblot and RT-QuIC. Tissues (brain, spinal cord and spleen) from these and pre-clinical mice are currently tested using various read-outs and by second passage in mice. Transgenic mice expressing human PrP were so far negative for clear clinical prion disease (some mice >300 days p.i.). In parallel, the same macaque materials are inoculated into bank voles.
Taken together, there is strong evidence of transmissibility of CWD orally into macaques and from macaque tissues into transgenic mouse models, although with an incomplete attack rate.
The clinical and pathological presentation in macaques was mostly atypical, with a strong emphasis on spinal cord pathology.
Our ongoing studies will show whether the transmission of CWD into macaques and passage in transgenic mice represents a form of non-adaptive prion amplification, and whether macaque-adapted prions have the potential to infect mice expressing human PrP.
The notion that CWD can be transmitted orally into both new-world and old-world non-human primates asks for a careful reevaluation of the zoonotic risk of CWD..
***> The notion that CWD can be transmitted orally into both new-world and old-world non-human primates asks for a careful reevaluation of the zoonotic risk of CWD. <***
https://prion2018.org/
READING OVER THE PRION 2018 ABSTRACT BOOK, LOOKS LIKE THEY FOUND THAT from this study ;
P190 Human prion disease mortality rates by occurrence of chronic wasting disease in freeranging cervids, United States
Abrams JY (1), Maddox RA (1), Schonberger LB (1), Person MK (1), Appleby BS (2), Belay ED (1) (1) Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), National Center for Emerging and Zoonotic Infectious Diseases, Atlanta, GA, USA (2) Case Western Reserve University, National Prion Disease Pathology Surveillance Center (NPDPSC), Cleveland, OH, USA..
SEEMS THAT THEY FOUND Highly endemic states had a higher rate of prion disease mortality compared to non-CWD
states.
AND ANOTHER STUDY;
P172 Peripheral Neuropathy in Patients with Prion Disease
Wang H(1), Cohen M(1), Appleby BS(1,2) (1) University Hospitals Cleveland Medical Center, Cleveland, Ohio (2) National Prion Disease Pathology Surveillance Center, Cleveland, Ohio..
IN THIS STUDY, THERE WERE autopsy-proven prion cases from the National Prion Disease Pathology Surveillance Center that were diagnosed between September 2016 to March 2017,
AND
included 104 patients. SEEMS THEY FOUND THAT The most common sCJD subtype was MV1-2 (30%), followed by MM1-2 (20%),
AND
THAT The Majority of cases were male (60%), AND half of them had exposure to wild game.
snip…
see more on Prion 2017 Macaque study from Prion 2017 Conference and other updated science on cwd tse prion zoonosis below…terry
https://prion2018.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/program.pdf
https://prion2018.org/
THURSDAY, OCTOBER 04, 2018
Cervid to human prion transmission 5R01NS088604-04 Update
http://grantome.com/grant/NIH/R01-NS088604-04
http://chronic-wasting-disease.blogspot.com/2018/10/cervid-to-human-prion-transmission.html
snip…full text;
SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 09, 2019
Experts: Yes, chronic wasting disease in deer is a public health issue — for people
https://chronic-wasting-disease.blogspot.com/2019/02/experts-yes-chronic-wasting-disease-in.html
THURSDAY, MARCH 14, 2019
USDA APHIS CDC Cervids: Chronic Wasting Disease Specifics Updated 2019
https://chronic-wasting-disease.blogspot.com/2019/03/usda-aphis-cdc-cervids-chronic-wasting.html
SATURDAY, MARCH 16, 2019
Chronic Wasting Disease CWD TSE Prion United States of America Update March 16, 2019
https://chronic-wasting-disease.blogspot.com/2019/03/chronic-wasting-disease-cwd-tse-prion.html
FRIDAY, MARCH 15, 2019
Saskatchewan Chronic Wasting Disease TSE Prion 349 Cases Positive for 2018
https://chronic-wasting-disease.blogspot.com/2019/03/saskatchewan-chronic-wasting-disease.html
TUESDAY, MARCH 26, 2019
USDA ARS 2018 USAHA RESOLUTIONS Investigation of the Role of the Prion Protein Gene in CWD Resistance and Transmission of Disease
https://chronic-wasting-disease.blogspot.com/2019/03/usda-ars-2018-usaha-resolutions.html
FRIDAY, MARCH 29, 2019
First Detection of Chronic Wasting Disease in a Wild Red Deer (Cervus elaphus) in Europe
https://chronic-wasting-disease.blogspot.com/2019/03/first-detection-of-chronic-wasting.html
MONDAY, FEBRUARY 25, 2019
MAD DOGS AND ENGLISHMEN BSE, SCRAPIE, CWD, CJD, TSE PRION A REVIEW 2019
https://bseinquiry.blogspot.com/2019/02/mad-dogs-and-englishmen-bse-scrapie-cwd.html
Terry S. Singeltary Sr.