Oh Yeah - I need help, too with this one.

This is a pretty scholarly article with a lot of big words that I am not familiar with. I did a quick research on "prion" and I guess they are the agents which can cause certain diseases (including CWD) if they are in a "misfolded form" - not formed in a normal way.

I'm thinking that one of the reasons for the presence of clay being a contributing factor is that clay particles are very small compared with sand particles. Consequently, they pack together more tightly and reduce the ability of the soil to drain well enough for these nasty "prions" to leach away as they might in more sandy soil. When animals such as deer eat this soil in the normal process of browsing on forbes and grasses, they ingest the prions and become infected.

OK - I think I'm a little smarter now. Thanks for the report.

Thanks for the translation and summary. Makes it much easier to understand that way. I do have interest in this subject now but it's hard to understand some of the technical stuff that gets posted on it.

I do hereby nominate jaybe to, from this day forth, interpret flounders post and translate into layman's terms so the rest of us can be aware of the research and discoveries as related to CWD.

All of those in favor say "aye"....

I need a second to the motion.....?