Hunting for the Truth
	LifeSmarts
	Editorial
	Wisconsin Favorites Dashing Through the Snow!

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

LifeSmarts
Competition Spurs Teen Consumer Savvy

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

Answers: 1-b, 2-a, 3-a, 4-a, 5-b

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.

Dashing through the Snow

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.