By Bill Scanlon, Rocky Mountain News
October 5, 2006

Deer can spread Chronic Wasting Disease through saliva and blood, which means no part of an infected animal is positively safe to eat, Colorado researchers report in today’s edition of Science.

The study by Colorado State University scientists is the first to prove that saliva and blood are pathways for the fatal neurological disease.

Some herds in Colorado have no cases of CWD, and many others have very low incidents. But among some herds around Fort Collins and Rocky Mountain National Park, the infection rate is as high as 6 percent.

And because deer with the disease make themselves much more frequent targets of hunters, chances can be quite good that a hunter’s trophy has the disease.

While there is no proof that humans can get CWD from eating the flesh of an infected deer, such cross-species transfers have been seen in a related prion-type disease — Mad Cow Disease.

Dr. Ed Hoover, the principal scientist for the study, suggests that hunters pay strict attention to Colorado Wildlife Commission rules: Don’t eat any part of a deer until its brain and lymph nodes have been tested for the presence of the abnormal prions that signal CWD.

The finding about saliva means the disease can spread easier than scientists thought, Hoover said. Grooming is a common social behavior among deer. A diseased deer will groom, say, the leg of an uninfected deer. Later, when that deer grooms itself, it can get infected through the saliva on the fur.

Copyright 2006, Rocky Mountain News. All Rights Reserved.