In February this year, experts from the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) issued a warning about the dangers of eating deer meat. The cause of concern for specialists has become a deadly infection that affects deer in North America. Chronic wasting disease, popularly known as “zombie deer disease,” eats away at the brains of unfortunate animals, resulting in zombie-like symptoms such as aggression, increased salivation, difficulty walking, and signs of dementia. Recently, the director of the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy, Michael Osterholm, told The Independent that the transmission of the virus from deer to humans may already have taken place. We just don't know about it yet.
What is Chronic Wasting Disease?
Chronic wasting disease is caused by prions, a special class of infectious agents that have an abnormal structure and do not contain nucleic acids. Scientists are well aware of another form of spongiform encephalopathy - a prion neurodegenerative disease called mad cow disease. And Chronic Wasting Disease affects reindeer, white-tailed deer, elk, black-tailed deer, and wapiti. Prions transform the brains of infected animals into a kind of sponge, eating holes in the brain tissue, as a result of which the animals lose their fear of people and behave aggressively. There is no cure for this disease.
Earlier this year, the internet was flooded with videos showing deer breaking into houses and even dying at the bottom of the pool. However, the most frightening were the hunting footage, which shows the terrifying and truly frightening state of sick animals. Unsurprisingly, social media has started talking about the beginning of the zombie apocalypse, but researchers remind that any comparisons between sick deer and zombies are unscientific.
Prions turn the brains of infected animals into a sponge.
But there are serious concerns about the use of venison. With deer hunting season in many states now, experts are sounding the alarm again for Chronic Wasting Disease. However, according to some experts, it may be too late to stop the spread of this contagious spongiform encephalopathy in humans.
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How not to catch the zombie deer disease?
In an interview with The Independent, Michael Osterholm, director of the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy, noted a chilling precedent: it took health experts nearly a decade to realize that bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) is transmitted to humans. According to the expert, the likelihood of contracting any form of Chronic Wasting Disease is very high. Muscle wasting is a key factor in this fatal disease, and its fundamental difference from mad cow disease. Thus, anyone who eats venison runs the risk of falling prey to prion disease.
Authorities in the United States and Canada, where infected animals have also been found, are urging hunters to screen any deer they kill for Chronic Wasting Disease. If hunters have any reason to believe that the animal may be infected, meat should not be eaten under any circumstances. Recall that earlier experiments have shown that the zombie deer disease can be transmitted to monkeys.
Author: Lyubov Sokovikova