A “zombie” deer epidemic is now attracting widespread attention because of fears the disease could spread to humans.
Chronic Wasting Disease (CWD), or “zombie” deer disease, is reportedly a highly contagious and always fatal disease “which leaves animals drooling, lethargic, stumbling and with a blank stare,” according to Newsweek.
According to reports, it’s been spotted in deer across the country for years but is only now starting to go viral because it was just spotted in Yellowstone this past October, when a deer was found deceased because of it.
“Its discovery in Yellowstone, whose ecosystem supports the greatest and most diverse array of large wild mammals in the continental US, represents an important public wake-up call, says Dr Thomas Roffe, a vet and former chief of animal health for the Fish & Wildlife Service, a US federal agency,” The Guardian notes.
“Roffe had been predicting CWD would reach Yellowstone for decades, warning that both the federal government and the state of Wyoming needed to take aggressive measures to help slow its spread. Those warnings went largely unheeded, he says, and now the consequences will play out before the millions who visit the park each year.”
“This case puts CWD on the radar of widespread attention in ways it wasn’t before – and that’s, ironically, a good thing,” Roffe told the paper. “It’s a disease that has huge ecological implications.”
Dr. Michael Osterholm, the director of the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy at the University of Minnesota, appears to agree, telling The Guardian that CWD is a “slow-moving disaster.”
Dr. Cory Anderson, another scientist who reportedly recently earned a doctorate studying CWD, also concurs.
“We’re dealing with a disease that is invariably fatal, incurable and highly contagious. Baked into the worry is that we don’t have an effective easy way to eradicate it, neither from the animals it infects nor the environment it contaminates,” he told The Guardian.
Chronic Wasting Disease in Deer (and related), is spreading since ~2019. Media don’t talk about it much, despite the critical need to stop eating meat from these species, and to stop interacting with them in the wilderness. We will have been warned.https://t.co/4cip1o9HkW pic.twitter.com/5X3ReBGhcn
— C-A-G (@C_A_G0101) December 22, 2023
What makes the disease particularly frightening is the possibility that it might “spillover” to other species of animals/mammals, including potentially humans.
“The BSE [mad cow] outbreak in Britain provided an example of how, overnight, things can get crazy when a spillover event happens from, say, livestock to people,” Anderson said.
“We’re talking about the potential of something similar occurring. No one is saying that it’s definitely going to happen, but it’s important for people to be prepared,” he added.
The outbreak he mentioned occurred in the 1980s and 1990s and led to the purposeful slaughter of four+ million cattle to stop its spread.
Dr Raina Plowright, a disease ecologist at Cornell University, says the disease should be “viewed against a backdrop of dangerous emerging zoonotic pathogens that are moving back and forth across species barriers between humans, livestock and wildlife globally,” according to The Guardian.
“Outbreaks occur as human settlements and agricultural operations press deeper into environments where contact with disease-carrying animals is increasing,” The Guardian further notes.
The hunting season has reportedly started in the U.S., so the CDC is “strongly” recommending that any slain deer be tested before being eaten. This is especially important given 2017 data from the Alliance for Public Wildlife showing that 7,000 to 15,000 CWD-infected deer are eaten every year. CWD-infected deer consumption is especially bad in states where deer testing isn’t mandatory.
What can be done to stop the spread? Easy. STOP FEEDING DEER!
“The science of what’s needed to help slow the spread of CWD is clear, and has been known for a long time,” Roffe explained. “You don’t feed wildlife in the face of a growing disease pandemic.”
Map: Distribution of Chronic Wasting Disease in North Americahttps://t.co/2WHWBVZbjx https://t.co/0dLsQBlYrR pic.twitter.com/XbASK1wvjY
— boygobong (@boygobong) December 23, 2023
Also, let other animals do their jobs!
“Studies suggest that animals which some hunters regard as competitors may actually be allies. Wildlife predators such as wolves, cougars and bears are able to detect sick animals long before humans do, and they will prey on them, removing them from the landscape. So far, they have maintained immunity from disease,” according to The Guardian.
The latter recommendation is, however, a problem is Wyoming, Montana, and Idaho, three Yellowstone stones that “encourage the liberal killing of wolves and cougars for sport and livestock protection, even when doing so is unnecessary and may be counterproductive to controlling CWD.”
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V. Saxena is a staff writer with a decade of experience as a professional writer, and a lifetime of experience as an avid news junkie. He holds a degree in computer technology from Purdue University. Saxena also contributes to BizPac Review.
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