A message for the public about chronic wasting disease and Creuztfeldt-Jakob Disease

Public Advisories
February 16, 2005

Some Arizona Game and Fish Department customers have called us because they have heard rumors that a hunting guide diagnosed with Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease may have gotten the disease from handling a hunter-killed elk in Game Management Unit 2B.

The rumor is that Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease can be caused by a wildlife disease that affects deer and elk called chronic wasting disease.

All available science shows that there is no cause-and-effect relationship between these two diseases. Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease occurs randomly in humans. Chronic wasting disease is a wildlife disease.

Chronic wasting disease has not been found in Arizona
The Arizona Game and Fish Department initiated a surveillance program for chronic wasting disease in 1998 and has sampled 3,511 deer and elk. No cases of chronic wasting disease have been found in Arizona.

What is Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease?
Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease is a disease that occurs randomly in humans. There are two forms of it:  conventional and variant. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says conventional Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease occurs throughout the world in one out of every one million people over the age of 65. Variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease has been associated with a disease found in domestic livestock called Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy (BSE or "mad cow disease"). 

There is no evidence of a cause-and-effect relationship between either conventional Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease or variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease and chronic wasting disease.

Enjoy the sport of hunting  
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has reviewed the best available research and says there’s no evidence of a cause-and-effect relationship between chronic wasting disease and Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease. In two states where chronic wasting disease has been present in wildlife for years, Colorado and Wyoming, there has not been an increase in the incidence of Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease in humans. 

Learn more about chronic wasting disease
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
cdc.gov   Use their search feature to search the site for chronic wasting disease

Arizona Game and Fish Department 
azgfd.gov/cwd

Chronic Wasting Disease Alliance
cwd-info.org
 

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