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The wasting lands - The CWD epidemic in deer

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The WASTING LANDS - Page 2

Historical truths ignored.

A global study of the most basic rudiments of the history of TSEs clearly demonstrates that this disease does NOT spread via animal to animal contact or via ingestion of the ‘infected’ by the ‘uninfected’. For instance, when I was researching the most intensive global hotspot of sheep scrapie in the northernmost Icelandic fjords, I found that the Icelandic sheep farmers had adopted  the custom of slaughtering any sheep the moment the first symptoms of scrapie emerged. This tradition had not evolved from any fear of the disease exploding in the sheep population - since scrapie has occurred at a consistent incidence rate for light years in Iceland – but was carried out because the hard pressed farmers thought it best to eat the sheep (brains and all!) before the wasting symptoms of scrapie reduced the poor beast to skin and bones.

So if scrapie or CWD can be passed onto humans via consumption - as the scientific authorities would have us believe - why have no cases of CJD erupted in these Icelandic sheep farmers? In fact, Iceland has only ever witnessed two cases of CJD in its entire medical history, and these victims had both hailed from the scrapie-free district in the far south of the country.

A historical study of official government attempts to control both scrapie in Iceland and CWD in Colorado reveals the repeated FAILURE of several wholesale slaughter programmes that were executed in these well renowned, long standing TSE hotspot areas. After the deer and sheep had been culled across the vast tracts of land implicated in these TSE endemic regions, the fresh livestock introduced after a four year fallow period simply started to go down with the disease all over again.

Disturbingly, it seems that the US authorities have failed to learn such a simple lesson, and are following the farcical footsteps of their European counterparts, channelling public funds back into renewed slaughter schemes in Colorado and Wisconsin – schemes that are ironically no different from those which have already failed!

The repeated failure of these trials clearly indicates that the cause of this disease lies in the particular ENVIRONMENT where these animals were pastured. The answer must lie with some specific idiosyncratic factors commonly shared by all of the ecosystems where these spongiform hotspots erupt. An analytical field study of these regions provided a golden opportunity to pinpoint the aetiological needle in the causal haystack.

Low Copper ; the primary environmental prerequisite of TSE ?

As part of my eco-detective treks visiting isolated TSE clusters all over the world, I came to research CWD in Colorado in the early 1990s. I soon realised that if the deer had been roaming those canyons for long enough, CWD would be as old as the pre Cambrian hills that towered above me. I drew a criss-cross of soil samples right across the CWD endemic area, and  I remember the flecks of mica and schist that caught the razor-sun rays, almost dazzling me a few times – a phenomena that I had become well accustomed to during my sampling sprees in so many regions around the world; intensive sunlight, and more importantly, these specific geo-elements which characterised the granite terrain that underpinned every single long standing TSE cluster zone that I had visited to date. Furthermore, this observation virtually guaranteed that my environmental analyses would, once again, come back “zero copper” from the lab – the causal cornerstone of spongiform disease pathogenesis.

I was also intrigued to learn that the only spongiform susceptible species which had failed to go down with the disease in the CWD endemic area was the pronghorn antelope – an indigenous antelope that is well adapted to its centuries old occupation of Rocky Mountain terrain. The Pronghorn can conserve levels of copper and selenium in its body considerably more efficiently than any other species of cervidae. Perhaps its metabolic predisposition for copper conservation which the other species do not possess explains why the pronghorn has resisted CWD?

In this respect, it was of no surprise when I heard the recent news that CWD had now been identified in deer living around Mt Horeb in Wisconsin – another  copper deficient granite stronghold that has withstood the erosive elements over time. But for how long has CWD been around in Wisconsin? The disease may have been there for years, but only just been identified   because of the recent surge of political sensitivity and scientific intrigue surrounding this disease; thereby raising the ‘CWD awareness’ profile sufficiently to recognise the disease. But if CWD has only just emerged, it has to be considered that copper deficiency has blighted these granite terrains for centuries and cannot therefore be held as solely accountable for the recent eruption of CWD.

Metal Detector.

An ideal research study presented itself after I located two Icelandic valleys fifteen miles apart; where one valley played host to sheep flocks which were riddled with scrapie, whereas the other valley supported sheep flocks which were entirely scrapie free. Intriguingly, sheep from both valleys had been freely intermixing on the open mountain during summertime - once again discrediting the conventional theory which assumes that scrapie transmits via animal to animal contact.

So the answer to the causal question clearly lay with some unusual combination of environmental factors that are present in the scrapie valley, yet absent in the scrapie free valley.

I ended up carrying out many self funded field analyses in Iceland and other TSE cluster regions in Japan, Slovakia, New Quinea, Colorado, Italy, Sardinia, etc. After many cul de sacs and false leads, I believe that my observations have actually now identified those common toxic denominators – low copper/high manganese combined with high intensities of low frequency infrasonic shock - the key factors which have subsequently been shown to produce the fully fledged  prion in laboratory cell cultures - eg; the malformed prion protein which characterises the brains of all animals affected with spongiform disease.

In the Icelandic scrapie valley, the levels of copper in the pasture were rock bottom for natural reasons. Whereas the high levels of manganese had originated from volcanic emissions; with subsequent accumulation of manganese in the pasture grasses due to the characteristic wetness of the pastures in the scrapie valley -  where the resulting soil acidity renders manganese freely available for uptake into the pasture grasses. The source of intensive infrasound in this valley specifically stems from the earthquakes and earth tremors that have consistently issued from the major tectonic fault line which runs past the head of the valley – the nearby town of Dalvik was flattened by one such earthquake in 1938. 

I subsequently identified the same set of common toxic denominators in the Colorado CWD cluster area. My field survey and analyses revealed low copper throughout the deer’s food chain, in combination with a dietary ‘fetish’ of  the densely populated local deer for consuming large quantities of pine needles – which analysed out at 2000 + ppm of available manganese. Another more disturbing issue surrounding  manganese intake stemmed from the fact that deer hunters were being sold minerals that were intended to addict deer to their hunting territory. In this respect, the hunters have been unwittingly shooting their own industry in the foot, by putting down these dual purpose minerals that have been formulated to addict deer to their shooting grounds as well as for forcing the sturdy growth of their antlers. Guess which mineral is added for forcing antler growth? My contacts from Wisconsin also report use of these manganese minerals in their CWD hotspot region.

Intriguingly, the CWD endemic region of Colorado is also well noted for its high intensities of natural radiations of low frequency infrasound. Not only does it lie along a major fault line that runs up the Front Range ridge –  producing its fair share of mini earthquakes and tremors over the years – but several publications have highlighted the high intensities of infrasound  that derive from the atmospheric turbulence and winds passing over the mountain ridges of this specific region. The large number of explosions from the intensive quarry blasting activities in this area should also be considered as relevant sources of artificial infrasound, just as the intensive testing of missiles down at Whitesands missile range in New Mexico and another testing range near Mt Horeb in Wisconsin may also serve as these relevant sources of artificial infrasound in these recently declared CWD outbreak regions. 

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Last updated 09-Feb-2007