Originally Posted by Gtscotty
Originally Posted by Orion2000
Originally Posted by alpinecrick
... As one oldtimer I know said "We used to call it winterkill". It's important to realize prions were not discovered until the early 60's, and it was a few more years until prions and TSE (transmissible spongiform encephalopathy), also known as CWD in wild ungulates, were associated with each other. CWD could have existed in environment before it was "discovered" by wildlife biologists. ...

This is my thought as well. ^^^^^ There are many things now considered carcinogenic simply because we now have the ability to detect carcinogens at a much lower level. eg: Coffee...


Coffee is not considered carcinogenic:

Quote
. In June 2016, IARC downgraded their original 1991 classification of coffee from Group 2B (‘possibly carcinogenic to humans’) to Group 3: ‘Not classifiable as to carcinogenicity’. This means that after reviewing over 1,000 studies, IARC has judged that the extensive scientific literature does not show evidence of an association between coffee consumption and cancer.

Not only did IARC find no clear association between coffee intake and cancer at any body site, it also found that in some cases, there is evidence that coffee drinking may actually help reduce occurrence of certain cancers; specifically, cancers of the liver and uterine endometrium.


That was from another site that I could copy and paste from, here's the link to a press release from the IARC:

IARC coffee classification


O.K. So the WHO / IARC changed their minds over the past 20 years. My apologies. Germane to this discussion is the fact that we now have technology that is capable of detecting carcinogens, eg: 3,4 benzopyrene in roasted coffee, at a level that was not previously possible. Likewise over the last 50 years we have developed the capability to detect the prions related to CWD / TSE. To Alpinecreek's original point, prions / CWD / TSE's may have existed in the environment for a long period of time prior to humans developing the technology and test methodologies to detect them.