Elk NetworkResearcher: Humic Acid May Break Down CWD

General | December 3, 2018

A new study indicates an acid that develops in humus soil, the material when plant and animal matter decays, breaks down prions that cause chronic wasting disease.

A Canadian researcher took commercially-produced humic acid and applied it to an infected elk brain. According to Science News, “in tissue samples with higher concentrations of humic acid, chemical signatures left by the infectious prions decreased by as much as 95 percent, signaling that the prions had likely broken down.”

CWD is a fatal neurological (brain and nervous system) disease found in cervids – deer, elk and moose. The disease attacks the brains of infected animals and produces small lesions that result in death. There is no cure; once an animal is infected, it will die.

For more information about CWD, go to the chronic wasting disease alliance website.

(Photo image: Wyoming Game and Fish Department)