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Volunteer Writer: Akshit Bagga
Email: abagga@umassd.edu
Have you ever wondered what would happen if the zombies in Resident Evil made it to the real world? Well, that is becoming a reality. The only exception is that animal zombies are replacing human zombies.
A fatal illness, Chronic Wasting Disease (CWD), also termed zombie deer disease, has been spreading in deer, elk, reindeer, sika deer, and moose. It is known to infect members of the Cervid Family, and one of the recent cases of zombie deer disease was discovered in Yellowstone National Park when a carcass of a deer tested positive for CWD.
CWD is a prion disease or transmissible spongiform encephalopathies (TSEs) disease, which belongs to the family of rare progressive neurodegenerative disorders affecting humans and animals. It is characterized by tiny holes that give the brain a “spongy” appearance.
It is caused by misfolded proteins known as prions, which damage the brain, nervous system, and other spinal cord tissues. Abnormal prions cause damage to other normal prions in the body tissues, but most often to the ones in the brain and the spinal cord, which results in brain damage.
According to the CDC, “Like other prion diseases, CWD may have an incubation period of over a year, and clear neurological signs may develop slowly.”
“As the stages of CWD progress, infected animals may show varied changes in behavior and appearance including, drastic weight loss (wasting), stumbling, lack of coordination, listlessness, drooling, excessive thirst or urination, drooping ears, lack of fear of people and other neurological symptoms.”
Cases of zombie deer disease have been reported in thirty-one US states and multiple provinces in Canada, Norway, Finland, and other countries. As per the US Geological Survey, the first case of CWD in the United States was reported in 1967 in a mule deer at a government facility in Colorado.
While there haven’t been any spillover cases of this zombie deer disease from animals to humans, such prion diseases can spread in humans. In the 1980s and 1990s, more than 200 people were confirmed to have died from the mad cow disease, cases of which originated in the United Kingdom.
Rabies and Avian Influenza are other examples of diseases spreading from animals to humans. A recent example is COVID-19, the world’s most devastating pandemic of the century, which is believed to have spread from animals to humans.
A response team comprising a coalition of sixty-seven researchers from seven countries worldwide has been working to learn more about the CWD disease and how it could affect humans.
Michael Osterholm, an expert in infectious disease at the University of Minnesota and member of President Joe Biden’s thirteen-member Transition COVID-19 Advisory Board in 2020, stated, “The bottom-line message is we are quite unprepared.”
The University of Minnesota’s Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy has received more than $1.5 million in state money to start preparing for the possibility of CWD spreading to cows, pigs, and possibly humans.
As with mad cow disease, the most considerable risk that could lead to a human spillover is the consumption of the ill-affected animal. Professionals at Johns Hopkins Medicine say it is also possible for humans to contract prion disease by eating meat processed on contaminated equipment.
With hunting season only a few weeks away, animal-to-human transmission risk is severe. It can be challenging for hunters to know whether the deer or animal they have pinned down carries the CWD virus.
Considering the risk of CWD, the CDC has issued recommendations for hunters in CWD-infected areas. As per the CDC, a hunter should strongly consider having the deer or elk tested for CWD before they eat the meat.
Wildlife commissions have also stressed the importance of keeping the agents of all known prion diseases from entering the human food system.
With all the doom and gloom around zombie deer disease, it is vital to stay safe when in infected areas and when consuming hunted meat.