Can CWD affect rabbits?

[dlynn]

I may be paranoid but was wondering if any of you know or read anything about CWD? We have deer that wander thru yard. For years their deposits have been shoveled up and put in gardens. Now we are told there is CWD brought in by a local game farm importing infected deer to wisconsin from Montana. It's a prion that doesn't go away, isn't destroyed by cooking. No way to know if any of our visitors might be carriers, have stopped putting droppings in garden but still throw it in shrub borders to clean up piles. I am trying to set up for new rabbits. Want to try colony in shed with attached run, then tractors for grow outs. Do I have to worry about moving tractors around my yard? Can I feed branches from those shrubs? Are rabbits suseptable? Am I just worrying too much?

 

[MuddyFarms]

That is a good thought. I don't know if rabbits can get CWD, but I would be concerned about it until I know otherwise. Maybe calling a county extension agent or some universities with agricultural extensions would be a good idea? I would like to know if you find out anything about this topic, so I will be watching this thread.

 

[ladysown]

a quick google search taught me this: Rabbits have long been considered immune to prion disease, but recently scientists have shown that they can--under certain circumstances--get transmissible spongiform encephalopathy (or TSE, the scientific term for the fatal brain disease caused by prions). you can (I think) get more information here: Why it's hard to make a bunny mad: Examining prion disease resistance in rabbits

 

[dlynn]

a quick google search taught me this: Rabbits have long been considered immune to prion disease, but recently scientists have shown that they can--under certain circumstances--get transmissible spongiform encephalopathy (or TSE, the scientific term for the fatal brain disease caused by prions). you can (I think) get more information here: Why it's hard to make a bunny mad: Examining prion disease resistance in rabbits

Thanks. Read this and a few more. Lots of genetically modifying genes and diseases scary stuff. University of Texas Health Science Center had interesting stuff. They discovered grass plants can bind, uptake, and transport infectious prions. Incubation is a year or more so rabbits may not show any effects. I worry about it accumulating in the food chain. As cooking doesn't eliminate it. Think the areas I hope to move tractors in is shrinking. Still more questions than answers and I tend to some Paranoia...

 

[ladysown]

then my advice... don't tractor your rabbits, it won't be worth the risk to you. I don't tend to like tractoring as I find it leads to parasite loads.