Osterholm Quotes

"It's kind of a genetic roulette table. One of the things we worry about is that as more and more transmission occurs within the cervid population, you have more chances for genetic changes to occur in the [CWD] prions, which could make them more likely to infect humans"

“We're kind of at a deja vu-like moment with what's happening with the rapid spread of CWD and the subsequent consumption by humans of contaminated venison, and what happened in Great Britain [with "mad cow" disease]. Granted, we don't have any evidence that it's happened here yet, but we're talking about potentially a 10-year incubation period."

"Right now finding these trophy deer that are being moved from one state to another to put into game farms is a huge challenge; that's how this [CWD] prion is moving."

"Imagine if [CWD] did get transmitted to cows and the field whether dairy or not this would have an incredible impact on our meat industry right here in Minnesota and throughout the country."

"I would have to say that all the planning that's gone on to date and the pre-vaccination and the surveillance efforts, I would say we have a very high likelihood [of containing an Ebola outbreak in nations neighboring DR Congo]. Those areas are much more stable than their adjoining neighbor in DRC."

"That, to me, is one of the smartest investments we could make, setting up these kinds of laboratories [such as in Entebbe, Uganda, to detect Ebola and other pathogens] and public health systems throughout the world. For every dollar we spend on them, we will reap back, I believe, many, many dollars in return in terms of not having to fight a much larger problem."

"There is an immediate and critical need for national leadership on addressing CWD, and the CWD Program establishes the University of Minnesota as both the national and international center for CWD response, research, education and policy."

"We don't have a generation to get an answer. How can we fast forward? It can't be business as usual. We can't decide we are going to take on programs that may take decades before they are realized."

"Regardless of whether CWD reaches humans, it's going to be a hell of a wildlife disease problem no matter what. But it could be a lot more than that. We could have a BSE nightmare, an American version of it, all over again."

"Feeding wildlife and bunching animals together concerns me greatly [about CWD risk]. That to me is as close as you're going to get in a cervid to migratory waterfowl, and when disease affects migratory birds it gets moved around quickly."

"Look at the accelerating number of cases. This is out of control in the wildlife populations....In Iowa County, Wisconsin, almost 40% of some wild deer herds are CWD positive, which means they are going to die and before they do they'll expose others. What does that mean? We don't know but the prospects are frightening."

"Is there going to be potential cross exposure [to cattle] and would that happen? The ag people can’t just back out of the conversation about it potentially reaching livestock and, of course, public health officials need to be paying attention to the human side."

"What the hell happens when you introduce CWD into meat processing environments? If somebody's deer or elk comes through and it's contaminated, what does that mean for everything else behind it? I'll tell you: it's not good because it’s not easy to sterilize and decontaminate places and surfaces that become tainted with BSE prions."

"The last thing we want to have happen is for hunting as a tradition and a management tool to be reduced....However, we need to face the facts and make sure people are protected [against CWD] by providing the best available knowledge."

"I've seen the same thing with CWD [as with BSE] and I've been extremely concerned about, how again, from an agricultural standpoint, the captive cervid farming groups have so misled and challenged us with what they don't do to stop this."

"I think Beni still reflects basically a major success. The case we had this past week was a contact case. I for one am very positive on the activities that are going on over there and what they're doing to try to limit this. But, at the same time, I'm also the first to say expect the unexpected in situations like this."

"I don't know for sure in 10 years if we will have CWD transmission in humans, but it surely could happen. I do know that I don't want us to one day 10 years from now be remorseful for what we could have done to prevent transmission. My job is not to scare people out of their wits but to scare them into their wits.''

"We're concerned not just about people eating infected venison, but also the potential cross-contamination of the meat processing system."

"There are enough data that suggest that it is unclear and it [seeing human cases of chronic wasting disease] surely is a potential. The only responsible position we can take is to try to limit the exposure of humans to infected venison."

"My job as an epidemiologist is not to be a historian and record history. My job as an epidemiologist is to be an interventionist and change the future."