I am not a Biologist but was familiar with what we called hoof and mouth disease back in the 70s in cattle. This is the take from a Biologist, Larry Dablemont:
"
What is being said right now about the deer disease known as chronic wasting is absolutely ridiculous, because some game and fish departments are afraid they will lose so much money in deer tag revenue if they word things wrong. Many who eat deer meat are absolutely convinced that humans cannot get chronic wasting disease.
Technically, you cannot, because what is known as CWD in deer is called by a different name when it kills a human being. But I promise you, despite what you have heard, hunters and others have died because they ingested the prions which cause the same disease, by different names, in deer, elk, sheep, goats and cattle. In all these creatures, it is given a different name and in humans it is called Kruetzfeldt-Jakobs disease. How many have died from it is just a guess, because doctors I have talked with say that it is something not often tested for and many times, misdiagnosed as something else.
In my upcoming spring magazine I have tried to compile what medical people and scientists have been learning about this disease, and you can read all about it, in several pages of fact and theory coming from the study of this disease, from the best-qualified medical people, which is nothing like what the MDC is telling us.
Believe me, if you have eaten untested deer meat like that given out in any state’s ‘share the harvest’ program, you are taking a risk. How much of a risk no one can say. I urge you to read in the spring issue of The Lightnin’ Ridge Outdoor magazine, some other views of those who have looked at this disease without bias.
I recently learned that in the northern tier of Arkansas counties bordering Missouri, examination of road-killed deer in 2017 showed more than 100 CWD infected deer. Isn’t it strange that the Missouri Conservation Department just finds a handful of deer in neighboring counties with that disease? Apparently the awful disease just stops at the Arkansas-Missouri line.
To contact me, call our office… 417-777-5227, or email lightninridge47@gmail.com. The address to mail is Box 22, Bolivar, Mo. 65613"