The first detection of Chronic Wasting Disease (CWD) in Europe

[Emily]

Thank you toBertrand789 for reporting this. We can only hope that this will not progress in Europe the way it has in North America. The emergence in a remote reindeer population is a mystery.

http://www.vetinst.no/eng/Highlights/The-first-detection-of-Chronic-Wasting-Disease-CWD-in-Europe

[h=1]The first detection of Chronic Wasting Disease (CWD) in Europe[/h] Published: 04/04/2016 6:27 pm Last modified: 05/04/2016 4:00 pm

Reinsdyr.
Foto: Colourbox.


The Norwegian Veterinary Institute has diagnosed Chronic Wasting Disease (CWD) in a free-ranging reindeer from the Nordfjella population in South-Norway. CWD is a lethal disease in cervids. The disease is well known in North America; however this is the first detection of CWD in Europe. Also, this is the first detection of natural infection in reindeer worldwide. This news includes a video with expert interviews....

 

[Emily]

[h=1]http://www.nature.com/news/deadly-animal-prion-disease-appears-in-europe-1.19759

Deadly animal prion disease appears in Europe[/h] How brain disorder related to mad-cow disease spread to Norway is a mystery.

• Rachel Becker

18 April 2016 A highly contagious and deadly animal brain disorder has been detected in Europe for the first time. Scientists are now warning that the single case found in a wild reindeer might represent an unrecognized, widespread infection.
Chronic wasting disease (CWD) was thought to be restricted to deer, elk (Cervus canadensis) and moose (Alces alces) in North America and South Korea, but on 4 April researchers announced that the disease had been discovered in a free-ranging reindeer (Rangifer tarandus tarandus) in Norway. This is both the first time that CWD has been found in Europe and the first time that it has been found in this species in the wild anywhere in the world.
?It?s worrying ? of course, especially for animals. It?s a nasty disease,? says Sylvie Benestad, an animal-disease researcher at the Norwegian Veterinary Institute in Oslo who, along with colleague Turid Vik?ren, diagnosed the diseased reindeer.
A key question now is whether this is a rare ? even unique ? case, or if the disease is widespread but so far undetected in Europe...