Just had our first case of chronic wasting disease come to Washington State. The Fish and Wildlife want deer, elk and moose tested, but it takes 6 weeks to get results.

From what I read...So far humans aren't effected, but hamsters, and ferrets are? It is spread by saliva, urine, poop. Remains in the soil for 15 to 30 years. Is taken up by plants such as wheat and thus can be transported in food crops. Isn't destroyed by cooking. Chorine is effective only on hard surfaces and maybe not that well. Scavengers like crows spread the prions. Nationally 10% of deer have it. Scandinavia has a different version in the moose population.

They don't recommend eating infected meat, but if you don't have results for 6 weeks, what are hunters doing with the meat that have been dealing with this for several years? Process it then toss it if it is infected. Do you put Mr Yuck stickers on the butcher paper and if alerted to infection take it to the special county dump to prevent more spread? Are farmers preparing anything to deal with it in crops? If Trump gets in and reduces the CDC back to just malaria control, will CWD get ignored?

I don't know but it's scary. I haven't eaten wild game since the 90s but I suppose there's a risk it will get transmitted to domestic animals eventually.

Because it gets into the soil and then into food crops, even avoiding eating meat won't help.

Maybe just borrowing trouble. I hope this is an opportunity for some grad students to do a bunch of research and come up with answers/solutions.