1d ago

‘Don’t call it zombie deer disease’: scientists warn of ‘global crisis’ as infections spread across the US

www.theguardian.com ‘Don’t call it zombie deer disease’: scientists warn of ‘global crisis’ as infections spread across the US

The contagious, fatal illness in deer, elk and moose must be taken seriously, say experts as it takes hold in the US and reaches other countries. While it has not infected humans yet, the risk is growing

In a scattershot pattern that now extends from coast to coast, continental US states have been announcing new hotspots of chronic wasting disease (CWD).

The contagious and always-fatal neurodegenerative disorder infects the cervid family that includes deer, elk, moose and, in higher latitudes, reindeer. There is no vaccine or treatment.

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14h ago

‘Don’t call it zombie deer disease’: scientists warn of ‘global crisis’ as infections spread across the US

www.theguardian.com /environment/2025/mar/20/chronic-wasting-disease-spread-zombie-deer-global-us-aoe

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14h ago

‘Don’t call it zombie deer disease’: scientists warn of ‘global crisis’ as infections spread across the US

www.theguardian.com /environment/2025/mar/20/chronic-wasting-disease-spread-zombie-deer-global-us-aoe

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1d ago

‘Don’t call it zombie deer disease’: scientists warn of ‘global crisis’ as infections spread across the US

www.theguardian.com /environment/2025/mar/20/chronic-wasting-disease-spread-zombie-deer-global-us-aoe

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45 comments

chronic wasting disease (CWD) sounds way the f worst than zombie deer. Unless the disease is transmitted through ... nope its not bites.
Prions have demonstrated an ability to remain activated in soils for many years, infecting animals that come in contact with contaminated areas where they have been shed via urination, defecation, saliva and decomposition when an animal dies.

Thoughts and prayers to the conservative deer hunters.

The most recent research I heard was that human transmission was highly unlikely. It was kind of a big deal and happy news. The experiment involved high prion concentrations and human cells with a long exposure.
A few years ago, there was successful primate transfer, IIRC.
This is something I watch pretty closely.
Best controls are natural predators or heavy hunting to reduce population density.

Prions are one of the scariest things on this planet.
- They’re downright awful. They can survive much higher temperatures than most other pathogens which means cooking often fails to destroy them.
  
  Yeah it's like 800+ degrees to "kill" it. As prions aren't alive, they can't really be killed, just destroyed. And they last for years in the natural environment.
  
  https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC3160281/
  Several reports have shown that prions can persist in soil for several years.
- Fr. CWD is a major reason I avoid venison. It hasn't made the jump yet, but damn if I'm going to be the 1st.
  
  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chronic_wasting_disease
  Since 2014, however, the CFIA has allowed animals from CWD-infected farms to enter the food chain because there is "no national requirement to have animals tested for the disease". From one CWD-infected herd in Alberta, 131 elk were sold for human consumption.[19]
  Hmm.
  
  Hunters have been diagnosed with the human equivalent shortly after eating infected venison. There's no proven causal link, but it seems like quite a coincidence.
  
  Pretty sure they have kits you can use to send for testing for it if you hunt

Zombie Deer Disease makes me a lot more concerned about it than Chronic Wasting Disease.
Pretty much the only people that know about CWD around here are deer hunters because of license requirements.
Zombie Deer Disease makes it a billion times scarier and easier to remember
- And some clowns
  https://clowncore.computer/store/meat-hat-in-stock-925
  
  I want to buy everything from this but also get the impression that my financial information would immediately suffer identity theft.

“It trivialises what we’re facing,” says epidemiologist Michael Osterholm.
Oh, OK. So it's worse than "zombie deer disease". Cool. Cool, cool, cool.
- Vampire zombie deer disease?! 😱

So .. will the current administration allocate funds to research and find solutions, or just keep firing federal employees on the front line and blame immigrants?
- They just signed the order to shut down the Department of Education. I'll let you answer your own question.
  
  Serious question: what happens to education now? I mean will there be a regulating body or what happens exactly?

Studies show that having healthy wild carnivores on a landscape can help weed out sick CWD-carrying elk and deer, but states in the northern Rockies have adopted policies aimed at dramatically reducing wolves, bears and mountain lions.
There's a reason that carnivores and herbivores live in close proximity. Those humans who fail to recognize that will likely succumb to the first human cases of CWD.
On a side note I used to work on a couple of golf courses in northwestern Ontario. We had an infected moose show up early one fall and had to shut the course down because he just kept attacking trees all over the course. Didn't eat or drink, just fucked around with trees. Scared the shit out of us.
- Poor thing’s fried brain probably thought the trees were other moose or something
  
  Maybe. It was shortly before the rut started so that would make sense.
- That's a byproduct of them living in proximity, not a reason for it.
  
  Except humans prevented it by removing predators. That's a reason for them to return to living in proximity. There should be predators.

Scientist: "Don't call it zombie deer disease"
Scumbag Steve Reporter: puts it right in the damn headline.

Lmao, in the article it mentions issues about global trade, food supplies and shit lol, however if this shit gets to human-spreading, that's game over.

We'll get to it right after bird flu and mpox, right guys?

I've been training for this for years. All those hours in L4D2 are finally gonna pay off.

But it’s so catchy!
- Zombie Deer Disease: It's Catching On!

I don't know why this reminds me of World War Z.
- Oh come on! That's because of "zombie" in title and you know it.

45 comments