Williams understands the personal and emotional side of the science she studies in the antiseptic confines of the lab.
She can imagine what it’s like to be a game farmer worried about public
anxiety.
“It’s a growing industry and now they have this disease that looks like mad cow disease. It looks horrible,” she said.
“I personally wouldn’t want to have my money invested in elk right now.”
That’s because she has seen the hysteria that has swept through Europe since scientists confirmed there is a possible link between mad cow disease and new variant Creutzfeld-Jakob disease.
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But Williams isn’t letting that hysteria infect her own scientific understanding.
She works closely with animals that are dying of the disease and she doesn’t shy away from animals in the wild.
She knows the chance of the disease infecting her are infinitesimally small.
“I hunt in the area where CWD
occurs. We have a cabin right in the hot zone. And I had venison for dinner last night and I’m not going to stop eating venison and I’m not scared of it personally.”
