Warnings that ‘slow-moving disaster’ in North America raises chances of fatal mad cow-type disease jumping species barrier
When the mule deer buck died in October, it perished in a place most humans would consider the middle of nowhere, miles from the nearest road. But its last breaths were not taken in an isolated corner of American geography. It succumbed to a long-dreaded disease in the backcountry of Yellowstone national park, north-west Wyoming – the first confirmed case of chronic wasting disease in the country’s most famous nature reserve.
For years, chronic wasting disease (CWD), caused by prions – abnormal, transmissible pathogenic agents – has been spreading stealthily across North America, with concerns voiced primarily by hunters after spotting deer behaving strangely.
The prions cause changes in the hosts’ brains and nervous systems, leaving animals drooling, lethargic, emaciated, stumbling and with a telltale “blank stare” that led some to call it “zombie deer disease”. It spreads through the cervid family: deer, elk, moose, caribou and reindeer. It is fatal, with no known treatments or vaccines.
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Prions are fucking scary.
Right up there with aneurysms.
My dad is a contractor for a major beef processor in North America and tells me frequently how this is a much bigger issue and wider spread than anyone wants to admit. He has been told that a lot of the early-onset dementia cases the world has seen are likely linked to CWD. If an infected deer pees on the grass and another animal eats it, it can potentially spread the disease.
Yes, I realize this has major “my dad works at Nintendo” vibes but with much darker connotations.
No one in the beef industry is an expert on dementia. This is standard “I heard it from a guy” gossip.
5 years or so ago I would be WTFing at this headline and sending the article to everyone. Now my reaction is just ‘Yeah sure why the fuck not.’
Prion disease seem almost quaint now.
Aliens could invade tomorrow and id probably just keep scrolling.
I know the feeling, my son is an alien. My wife was impregnated by the aliens during one of my trips to visit Marfa, Texas.
Recovering…recovering…RECOVERED!!
Wait shit i forgot.
“Great. How are they going to fuck this up too?”
My 2024 bingo card had world ending asteroids, but hey, zombies is fun.
Once an environment is infected, the pathogen is extremely hard to eradicate. It can persist for years in dirt or on surfaces, and scientists report it is resistant to disinfectants, formaldehyde, radiation and incineration at 600C (1,100F).
This has me wondering, what happens to prions in the environment, ultimately? Presumably they’re nothing new, so if they’re that hard to destroy, shouldn’t they just have been building up in the environment ever since the first ones formed? Does something eat them, somehow?
I, for one, didn’t have zombie apocalypse on my 2024 bingo card.
Novice…
Deer zombie apocalypse
Is this is how the zombie apocalypse starts? Deer disease?
Welp, there’s my nightmare fuel for the day. Already knew prions were damnably difficult to get rid of on surfaces etc, hadn’t co soldered that CWD could realistically make the jump to humans.
A grim thought: wouldn’t the only way to deal with this effectively be… wiping out the dear population in an infected region?
