Hunting for the Truth The search goes on for answers about Chronic Wasting
Disease. With reassurance on one hand and fear on the other,
those answers could be a long time coming…
Ask Dr. Robert Ehlenfeldt to name the differences between Wisconsin
and Colorado, and chances are the first thing he mentions won't
be the relative size of the mountains—Rib vs. Rockies—or
differing interpretations of the cattle business—dairy
versus beef.
As an assistant state veterinarian, he undoubtedly has knowledge
about the latter, but Ehlenfeldt would more likely bring up
a different professional concern: Chronic Wasting Disease and
the fact that Colorado has been confronting it for close to
40 years with, in his view, "no big fuss."
Wisconsin is still in its first year of dealing with the affliction,
thus far found only in deer and elk. It’s not yet known
how extensively the disease has spread here, but there’s
been fuss enough to accommodate Wisconsin, Colorado, and a few
other states besides.
As director of the Bureau of Animal Disease Control in Wisconsin's
Department of Agriculture, Trade and Consumer Protection, Ehlenfeldt
takes Chronic Wasting Disease, or CWD, very seriously. But it's
clear that he's also seriously annoyed by what he regards as
the creation of a crisis atmosphere in Wisconsin, driven by
what he refers to as "the three Ps: Politics, the Press,
and Perceptions."
In a detailed presentation to hundreds of co-op leaders from
Wisconsin and Minnesota meeting recently in Eau Claire, three
points stood out: Ehlenfeldt says he’s seen no evidence
that CWD can be transmitted to livestock; he's seen no evidence
that it has ever caused illness in a human; and so far, it appears
that the percentage of Wisconsin's enormous deer herd that's
been infected is in the small single digits.
But Ehlenfeldt is also quick to say this could change as our
understanding of the disease improves—and there’s
clearly room for lots of improvement.
Offspring of an Ancient Scourge
CWD is believed to be caused by a sort of renegade
protein. It’s called a prion (PREE-on), and there are
normal prions as well as abnormal ones. Abnormal prions alter
normal ones, accumulate in the brain, and kill brain cells.
Over time, tiny holes develop within the brain, making it appear
spongy under a microscope, hence the term “spongiform”
to describe the diseases—there are several—that
share this characteristic.
Fortunately, spongiform diseases don’t turn up very often,
but some have been known and recognized for a long time. Fears
about whether they’ll stay as rare among humans as they’ve
been through history now fuel an emotional but deadly serious
debate.
The existence of Chronic Wasting Disease has been recognized
only since 1967, when symptoms first appeared in mule deer at
a research facility in northern Colorado. It didn’t get
its name until 11 years later, when it was classified as a transmissible
spongiform encephalopathy, making it a member of an old, familiar,
and frightening family.
The earliest recognized transmissible spongiform encephalopathy,
or TSE, is called Scrapie (SCRAPE-ee), known in sheep for at
least three centuries. An animal might be infected with a TSE-type
disease and show no symptoms for as long as 15 months. Once
the brain is damaged sufficiently, the animal will begin steadily
losing weight, drooling, grinding its teeth, behaving nervously,
drinking more and more water, and urinating frequently. Death
follows in a matter of weeks or months.
In addition to Scrapie among sheep, TSEs have been identified
in mink, cats (rarely and mainly in England), cattle (Bovine
Spongiform Encephalopathy or Mad Cow Disease—thus far
confined to Europe), and, as CWD, in deer and elk.
TSEs afflicting humans include Creutzfeld–Jakob (KROITS-felt
YAH-kawb) Disease, which occurs at a rate of about one person
per million in the general population; New Variant Creutzfeld–Jakob,
believed caused by consumption of Mad Cow-contaminated meat;
and a handful of extremely rare and obscure diseases including
Kuru, linked to ritual cannibalism in parts of New Guinea and
now believed to be a thing of the past.
It’s the New Variant Creutzfeld–Jakob (NVCJ) that
may be the most worrisome, since it appears to demonstrate that
TSEs can make their way from one species to another and infect
humans as well as the animal species where they originated.
At least that’s what researchers in Britain think they’ve
found, and it is clearly on the minds of Wisconsin officials.
An information pamphlet furnished by the Department of Natural
Resources notes that a dozen people in England died of NVCJ
during the 1990s, and the prions taken from 10 of the 12 were
said to be similar to those related to Mad Cow, not to those
related to human Creutzfeld–Jakob. Every one of the victims
had consumed meat suspected of Mad Cow contamination.
Moreover, the DNR pamphlet acknowledges that scientists believe
the leap from cattle to humans was not the first but the second
for these prions, after having initially leapt from sheep to
cattle.
The source of the prions that caused Britain’s Mad Cow
epidemic is believed to be Scrapie-afflicted sheep, added to
cattle feed as a protein supplement and passed along up the
food chain.
That alarming possibility may be buffered somewhat by a lack
of evidence that CWD behaves in the same way. The DNR pamphlet
says, “There is no scientific evidence that CWD is transmissible
to other animals through consuming meat from an infected deer.”
In his Eau Claire presentation, Ehlenfeldt was emphatic on the
latter point. “There’s no evidence there’s
ever been a [CWD] problem with any livestock. Never been a case
in cattle, sheep, or goats; never been found in predator species
like coyotes or raccoons. The only place they’ve ever
found it is in deer and elk,” he said.
The DNR adds a caveat, citing experiments by state veterinarians
in Colorado and Wyoming. In three studies, they attempted to
infect cattle with CWD by penning them with sick deer. In five
years, the DNR says, no cattle have become infected through
contact or even by consuming feed laced with diseased brain
tissue from infected deer. Three developed the disease after
it was injected directly into their brains—three of 13
on which the experiment was tried, according to the DNR. The
agency said those results “suggest that CWD is not naturally
transmissible to livestock.”
Time Bombs in the Freezer?
Some take a more expansive view of how CWD
might be transmitted. In December, Milwaukee Magazine published
a story headlined “The Killer Among Us,” with a
head-on closeup of what appears to be at least an eight-point
(part of the rack is off the page) whitetail buck wearing an
expression that says, “I may look innocent, but I’ve
got an ugly surprise for you.”
Dr. Ehlenfeldt is not at all pleased by the article, which purports
to reveal “what state officials aren’t telling you
about chronic wasting disease—the politics and blunders
behind its spread and the true dangers.”
His disdain may be understandable in that the story halfway
attributes to him a public remark about the transmissibility
of CWD that it characterizes as inaccurate, saying it was uttered
by the state veterinarian “or his replacement, Ehlenfeldt.”
He also claims the magazine selectively quoted a colleague to
assign what appears to be a flippant attitude toward the risk
of infection.
Those arguments aside, what the story indisputably does is present
opinions from government and academic researchers and public
health personnel. Some have been directly involved in TSE research
and some not, but all appear fearful there is no such thing
as an effective CWD barrier between species.
As supporting evidence, the story presents several cases of
Creutzfeld–Jakob among known venison-eaters in recent
years. Two were from Wisconsin, one from Minnesota, one from
upper Michigan, and three from Colorado. The article acknowledges
that in the Colorado cases, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control
asked the U.S. Department of Agriculture to kill a thousand
deer and elk from the areas where the victims hunted, and none
of those animals tested positive for CWD.
Earlier, a Milwaukee Journal Sentinel story about three hunters
from the Chetek area who died of exotic disorders after attending
wild game feeds together during the 1990s quietly slipped into
obscurity after it was determined that two had died of Creutzfeld–Jakob
and the third of a completely unrelated condition called Pick’s
Syndrome.
It’s the New Variant Creutzfeld–Jakob, not the classic
variety identified here, that British researchers suspect has
jumped from one species to another. And across the entire U.S.
population, sporadic Creutzfeld–Jakob produces about 300
cases a year. Still, if the variety of disease and number of
victims aren’t necessarily remarkable, the age of the
victims might be: Most of those noted in the Milwaukee Magazine
story were in their 20s and 40s, two to four decades younger
than the age when the disease typically appears.
Ironically, in debunking some of these stories on the premise
that they assume the truth of things we don’t know, Ehlenfeldt
emphasizes the risk of what is unknown. “Nobody’s
going to give you any guarantee,” he said in Eau Claire.
“I’m not gonna sign a paper that says nobody’s
ever going to get CWD, because in 2040 you might find something
different.” But as of now, he said, “all the evidence
is that there’s no risk, or that the risk is extremely
low.”
The Toll So Far
Chances are it will be a long time—conceivably
decades, before the full cost of CWD in Wisconsin is known.
But short-term losses are coming into focus.
The Department of Natural Resources says hunters’ spending
for equipment, lodging, and other related costs during the nine-day
gun deer-hunting season in recent years has totaled about $900
million in annual economic activity. In December the agency
reported that 2002 license sales—at 619,000—were
down about 10 percent from 2001.
That 10-percent reduction was paralleled by a 10-percent drop
in the deer kill for the nine-day season. About 261,000 animals
were taken from an estimated population of 1.6 million.
Inevitably, that means at least some increase in damage to habitat
and forage for other wildlife, to farmers’ crops and homeowners'
gardens, and landscaping greenery. This involves more than mere
inconvenience. The state (read: Wisconsin taxpayers) forked
over about $1.8 million in 2001 to compensate for wildlife-damage
claims, nearly all of it related to the exploding deer population.
It remains to be seen whether more successful hunts or the spread
of disease—CWD or something else—will bring deer
numbers under control. The DNR has set over-winter population
goals of 10 to 35 animals per square mile of deer range. In
the Dane–Iowa County area where the first cases of CWD
in the wild were confirmed, the population had reached 40 to
50 per square mile.
Other costs are more likely to be noticed locally. The several
hundred game farms raising deer and elk are bound to shrink
in numbers; interstate commerce in deer and elk has essentially
stopped. And Ehlenfeldt says he was told by a national feed
company representative that baiting and feeding deer is so popular
and yields to such a volume of business that a ban would mean
losing the equivalent of a half-dozen small-town feed mills.
However, he says, a feeding ban is not a new concept and didn’t
originate with the discovery of CWD. The state’s agriculture
department and the DNR first talked six years ago about a feeding
ban because of concerns about deer spreading more familiar diseases
to livestock.
“It’s a dead certain fact that feeding contributes
to the spread of TB in lower Michigan,” Ehlenfeldt says,
noting that 26 dairy farms in the state have tuberculosis traced
to cattle contacts with wild deer. And in the West, he says,
brucellosis is readily spread to cattle by feeding elk, an “unnatural
congregation of animals in an uncontrolled environment.”
Got a Better Idea?
The DNR and other agencies working to assess
and contain the CWD threat have a plan to eliminate the entire
deer population from a 450-square mile area surrounding the
state's first three confirmed cases.
Those were the first cases ever detected east of the Mississippi
River and all three deer were killed within two miles of one
another. By the 2002 gun season, about 40 cases were confirmed
in the so-called "eradication zone." Since then, at
least one additional case has reportedly been identified not
far from the zone and to the west.
Of more than a quarter-million whitetails harvested by hunters
in 2002, the DNR hopes to test about 500 per county, and any
new cases found in that sampling will trigger new action to
wipe out infected animals.
"Any place we find a positive, we're going to set up a
four-mile eradication zone around that positive, see what we
find, and try to make sure we don't have any more," Ehlenfeldt
says.
Meanwhile, he and others recommend, don’t eat any animal
that's tested positive or showed CWD symptoms, and if a sample
was submitted for testing, wait until the results are in. Nobody
should consume the brain, spinal cord, eyes, or any part of
the lymphatic system from any deer—a restriction one suspects
will be almost universally observed.
As to whether the eradication policy will have the desired effect,
until the complete, statewide testing results are in, it will
be too early even to know the scope of the problem, much less
gauge the prospects for success. Ehlenfeldt says it's the right
thing to do, with a qualifier. “As far as I can see now,
we're on the right track," he says, adding that he might
say something different in March, with the testing results in
hand.
That works out to almost exactly a year from the day he got
his first phone call saying CWD had been identified in Wisconsin.—Dave
Hoopman
One ton of recycled paper saves approximately how many trees?
1) Five
2) Ten
3) Seventeen
High school students involved in the Wisconsin
LifeSmarts program will snap out the answer quicker than most
readers of this magazine: “Seventeen.”
Nationally, LifeSmarts is known as the “ultimate consumer
challenge; in Wisconsin it is recognized in more than 30 school
districts as a valuable educational teaching tool engaging hundreds
of high school students in a fun and challenging path to consumer
literacy.
And just what is consumer literacy? The LifeSmarts, program
emphasizes five areas that are of importance for all savvy consumers.
The categories are personal finance, health and safety, technology,
consumer rights and responsibilities, and the environment. Virtually
all of the subject areas touch on practical knowledge that teachers
can incorporate into existing courses such as consumer and family
education, business education, or social studies.
The program complements the curriculum already in place in many
Wisconsin high schools such as Fall River, Baldwin, Wautoma,
Oconto, Beaver Dam, Westfield, Holmen, and Elroy, to name a
few. LifeSmarts can be an activity for home school students,
public or private school classes, groups, clubs, and community
organizations.
Another sample question might be:
“The Three-Day Cooling Off Rule gives you the right to
cancel certain purchases costing at least ___?” Again,
Wisconsin LifeSmarts students will know the answer to be “$25.”
LifeSmarts is a project of the National Consumers
League (NCL). NCL uses state-of-the-art computer technology
at the www.lifesmarts.org <http://www.lifesmarts.org>
site as the vehicle for teaching and involving students in a
“virtual” competition with other students in their
state. The format is appealing to students and adults because
individuals can study and answer a series of quiz questions
at their own pace. Practice quizzes change so that students
can learn by playing over and over. A teacher or other adult-such
as a 4-H specialist or volunteer coach-signs on with the names
of students who comprise a LifeSmarts team. The full instructions
for coaches and students are on the web site.
LifeSmarts takes place in three phases. First, teams from each
state compete in the Internet-based competition. Top-scoring
teams advance to the in-person state competition. The Wisconsin
state champions advance to the national event, supported by
special fundraising conducted by the Center for Consumer Affairs
at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. Wisconsin has sent
teams to Philadelphia, New York, Tucson, Minneapolis, San Diego,
and Washington, D.C. In 2003 the Wisconsin team with the highest
cumulative score will win the chance to compete at the national
LifeSmarts competition in Orlando, Florida.
This school year, the Wisconsin competition opened on the Internet
(www.lifesmarts.org <http://www.lifesmarts.org>) on September
23 and will close on January 28, 2003. By then, students will
have studied, taken many practice quizzes, and (when they or
their coach indicates that they are ready) registered to have
their final scores used to determine eligibility to participate
in the Wisconsin Championship Contest. The top nine scoring
teams will be invited to the in-person contest on February 28
at the UW-Milwaukee Center for Consumer Affairs in downtown
Milwaukee.
Aside from enjoying the inherent learning opportunities available
in the computer participation, most schools compete hoping to
be invited to the in-person Wisconsin LifeSmarts Championship.
It is an exciting event where state teenagers match wits on
contemporary consumer issues. Nine teams of five students each
will represent their schools in a “college bowl”
quiz program format. For the 2003 event, Governor James Doyle
has been invited to provide the opening welcome to the students,
their teachers, and parents. For Doyle it will be a reprise
of the role he has performed at two earlier LifeSmarts Championships.
(At this writing his staff has not confirmed that he will be
available.)
Many state sponsors collaborate to make LifeSmarts a fun and
rewarding activity for Wisconsin youth. Participants have been
provided with U.S. Savings Bonds as well as gift certificates,
tee shirts, luggage, and other useful prizes. The grand prize
in 2003 will be the all-expenses-paid trip to Orlando for the
National Championship.
Rufus King High School in Milwaukee represented Wisconsin at
the nationals in April, 2002. Five students and their coach
toured the U.S. Capitol, met new friends, and weathered the
tough competition from their counterparts in Washington, D.
C.
Minnesota fielded the nation’s winning team, with the
team’s coach making a memorable pitch for “celebrating
the accomplishments of our scholars as much as we do our athletes.”
Wisconsin will do just that on February 28 at the state championship
event. Vounteers from education, government, and the private
sector will perform as judges, time-keepers, referees, and score-keepers.
Bill Oemichen, president/CEO of the Wisconsin Federation of
Cooperatives (which publishes Wisconsin Energy Cooperative News
for the state’s electric cooperative members) and the
Minnesota Association of Cooperatives, has agreed to be the
2003 Quiz Master for the third straight year. And even after
his several years of experience as one of the nation’s
top consumer advocates, Oemichen claims he always learns something
new from posing the broad range of questions provided (under
high security) by the National Consumers League. He has also
offered to supply a series of timely questions specific to the
universe of cooperatives for the 2003 Wisconsin LifeSmarts Competition.-Pat
Mapp, Wisconsin LifeSmarts Coordinator
For more information on Wisconsin LifeSmarts, contact Patricia
Mapp at the Center for Consumer Affairs, 414/227-3133, or by
e-mail at pamapp@facstaff.wisc.edu
Try your marketplace knowledge on these sample questions:
1. You have credit card insurance that will
pay your credit card bills if you lose your job or become disabled.
What is true about this type of insurance?
a. It will pay your balances in full each month
b. It might only pay the minimum payments due
c. It will kick in immediately when you need it
2. What are the principal causes of bacterial resistance?
a. Overuse and misuse of antibiotic drugs
b. Overuse and misuse of cleaning products
c. Overuse and misuse of antibacterial hand soap
3. Federal law prohibits telemarketers from asking for fees
in advance of performing which services?
a. Repairing mistakes on consumers’ credit reports
b. Reparing consumers’ homes
c. Repairing faulty appliances
4. DSL enables information to move over:
a. Regular phone lines
b. Computer networks
c. Modems
5. Groundwater is being used at what percent rate greater than
it is being replenished?
a. 10
b. 25
c. 40
Merger
Mortality
In the early morning of May 2, 1995, hotel staff quietly slipped
a fax under my door. Sleepy-eyed and groping for my glasses
to read the sheet, I could make out it was from NRECA, the National
Rural Electric Cooperative Association, which was hosting our
Washington, D.C. meetings that week. It turned out to be a stunning
missive: the previous day back in the Midwest, it as announced
that Wisconsin Electric Power Company (WEPCo) and Northern States
Power (NSP) intended to merge.
I was with a group of co-op leaders from Wisconsin for the annual
NRECA Legislative Conference in the nation’s capital.
Later that same day as our teams of co-op directors and staff
visited congressional offices to talk about rural electrification
issues, we consistently ran into lobbyists for WEPCo. The merger
partners were already at work to influence federal officials
on the merits of their business plans.
Mind you, the utility lobbyists knew that members of Congress
would likely have little to do with
the actual approval process for the merger; the Federal Energy
Regulatory Commission (FERC) had that role. But they understood
that the good will of legislative leaders has a way of becoming
very important to decisions rendered by federal agencies, especially
if it involves business consolidations that can broadly impact
competition.
Dish Deliberations
As we saw recently with another proposed merger, it can be
a major detriment if senators and representatives become skeptical
of a merger plan.
Although it was the Federal Communications Commission (FCC)
that had primary responsibility for approving the merger of
satellite-TV giants EchoStar (Dish Network) and DIRECTV, members
of House and Senate Judiciary Committees probed the plan because
the Justice Department takes an interest if there are implications
for industry monopolization.
Fearful that combining the two largest purveyors of satellite
services could create a market dominance that would cut options
and raise prices for rural subscribers, Wisconsin’s electric
co-ops and their satellite-TV subsidiaries made sure federal
elected officials knew of those misgivings. It turned out that
Wisconsin’s congressional delegation was uniquely positioned
to exert pressure: Representative Jim Sensenbrenner chaired
the House Judiciary Committee, representatives Mark Green and
Tammy Baldwin were members of the panel, and senators Herb Kohl
and Russ Feingold served on the Senate Judiciary Committee.
All proved helpful.
Plans Unravel
As we’ve recounted here previously, lawmakers
confronted executives of the large satellite companies during
committee hearings, repeatedly asking for details on how the
consolidation would benefit consumers. The answers satisfied
neither the members of Congress nor the federal agencies, and
the merger ultimately failed to gain the necessary endorsement
by the feds.
As Harry Thibodeau of the National Rural Telecommunications
Cooperative told
Wisconsin electric co-op leaders in November soon after the
merger plan’s rejection was known, “We’ve
stuck a fork in this turkey; it’s well past done.”
holiday was at hand, it was a timely analogy.
And when five delegates from the cooperative-owned satellite-TV
distributors in Wisconsin traveled to Washington, D.C., and
visited congressional offices the week after Thanksgiving, it
was appropriately on a mission of thanks.
Can’t you just hear those sleigh bells
jingling in your mind? Instead of dreaming how it might be,
you can find dozens of opportunities this winter to experience
the magic of Wisconsin’s winter wonderland firsthand while
you and your loved ones are tucked cozily into a horse-drawn
sleigh. Many rural inns, stables, and festivals in all parts
of the state offer opportunities to experience an exhilarating
sleigh ride during the frosty months ahead.
For example, who could resist a sleigh ride with the beautiful
Appa-Lolly horses, Big Mac and Whopper, as they power their
way through the drifting snow? You’ll find Big Mac and
Whopper at the Telemark Resort near Cable, on Bayfield Electric
Cooperative lines. After your sleigh ride, you’ll warm
up with hot chocolate or apple cider while relaxing around a
bonfire. The rides, of about an hour’s duration, cost
just $12 per person. To check the sleigh-ride schedule and reserve
your place, call Telemark at 888/798-4718. Other “Up North”
possibilities are The Ranch (715/746-2490) in Mason and Palmquists’
“The Farm” (800/519-2558) near Brantwood.
A bit farther south, try Cabin Ridge Rides (715/723-9537), Cadott,
where sleigh rides end around bonfires after merrily traversing
400 acres of woods along Paint Creek. Other sites include Doberstein’s
Express (715/785-7714), Withee; Double J Horse-Drawn Rides (715/255-8162),
Loyal; the Rock Ridge Belgian Farm (715/472-2572), Luck; Sunset
Riding Stables (608/788-6629), La Crosse; Mecan River Outfitters
& Lodge (920/295-3439), Princeton; and the Quad “D”
Ranch (608/339-6436), Friendship.
On January 18 or 19, have a ride in a horse-drawn wagon during
Wisconsin Dells’ 13th annual Flake Out Festival (800/223-3557)
at Noah’s Ark Waterpark. While you’re there, you
can check out the snow-sculpting competition and many other
winter activities. The Dells’ Christmas Mountain Village
(608/254-3971) also offers sleigh rides, as well as skiing and
other snow-based fun.
In the southwest part of the state, write Robert White at White
Sleigh & Hay Ridesm 19769 Harold’s Lane, Stitzer,
WI 53825. Southeast, try the Dan Patch Stables at the Grand
Geneva Resort (262/215-5303) in Lake Geneva, the Lake County
Riding Stable (262/728-6560) in Delavan, or Old World Wisconsin
(262/594-6300) near Elkhorn.—Linda Hilton
For information about other Wisconsin sleigh-ride
opportunities, call the Wisconsin Department of Tourism at 800/432-8747
or visit “Sleigh Riding” under “Recreation
& Attractions” at www.travelwisconsin.com.
