Can Chronic Wasting Disease Jump From Deer To Humans? Concerns Rising

"Amid renewed concern about whether chronic wasting disease can jump from deer to people, a fatal human brain condition in the same family is showing up more often in Wisconsin and nationally.

It's happening as state testing for the deer disease is down, and hunters routinely opt not to test deer killed in affected zones.

In 2002, the year CWD was discovered in Wisconsin, six cases of Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease were recorded, according to the state Department of Health Services. In two of the last four years, 13 cases have been recorded. That's a 117% increase.

Nationally, there also has been an increase in cases of Creutzfeldt-Jakob. In 2002, there were 260 cases, compared with 481 in 2015, an 85% increase, according to data from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention."

John Fauber and Lee Bergquist report for the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel July 7, 2017.