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For years, scientists have been telling us that chronic wasting disease (CWD) belongs to a family of diseases called prion diseases or transmissible spongiform encephalopathies (TSEs). The CDC (Centers for Disease Control) website states, “The infection is believed to be caused by abnormal proteins called prions, which are thought to cause damage to other normal prion proteins that can be found in tissues throughout the body but most often in the brain and spinal cord, leading to brain damage and development of prion diseases.” Which there are no cure for and are always fatal.
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| “Is it possible a cure for CWD and a test kit for hunters in the field isn’t far off?” |
It has now been many years since CWD was first detected and to date, scientists are no closer to finding a cure than they were all those years ago, leading some to believe there is another cause of the disease and that the “prion is just a marker of infection.”
One of those people is Louisiana State University scientist Dr. Frank Bastian who believes the prion explanation is simply wrong. Bastian believes the source of the disease is a previously undiscovered species of bacterium called Spiroplasma, which causes the CWD proteins known as prions and that “the body may trigger prion formation as a defense mechanism against Spiroplasma.”
And many, including some hunting organizations and American politicians who have grown tired of decades of failure and countless wasted dollars on research have jumped on board with neuropathologist and animal scientist Dr. Frank Bastian, who claims to have “successfully cultured Spiroplasma.”
According to Bastian, when sheep, goats and deer were injected with Spiroplasma, they developed clinical signs of transmissible spongiform encephalopathies. Which could open the door to the potential to develop a vaccine to “treat, cure and prevent the disease in both captive deer and deer in the wild.”
Bastian’s research also indicates Spiroplasma could be the cause of Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease and mad cow disease, as well as Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s and ALS (Lou Gehrig’s disease), which would be a massive breakthrough should Spiroplasma be proven the culprit.
A video circulating on social media about a possible cure for chronic wasting disease has recently gone viral. In the video, Unified Sportsman of Pennsylvania ecologist John Eveland said, “We now are set on a path to end this disease and pending nightmare in Pennsylvania, across America and throughout the world.” In the video Eveland also said that within possibly a year, Dr. Bastian will develop a diagnostic hunter test kit that will allow hunters to test their deer in the field for CWD, and within three years develop an oral or nasal vaccine to be administered to wild deer and elk.
On the effects of CWD being left untreated, Eveland said, “The resulting impacts to natural ecosystems and our environment from the removal of our dominant herbivores is unimaginable. As catastrophic as these CWD impacts are, things will get worse, much worse... if not now contained, the bacterium could spell disaster to worldwide natural ecosystems.
“Dr. Bastian’s discovery is historic, and may well represent one of America’s most important conservation and human health achievements. He’s going to win a Nobel Prize with this.”
Let’s all hope that Dr. Bastian is on the right path.
You can watch the video at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p3uScQlks3g ■
For previous Outdoor Pursuits click here.
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