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‘Zombie deer disease’ epidemic spreads in Yellowstone as scientists raise fears it may jump to humans
(www.theguardian.com)
this post was submitted on 22 Dec 2023
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Shoot an infected deer in the head or have it otherwise die violently on the ground. Prions can last in the soil for years and years. Misfolded proteins are basically invulnerable, even in shit like autoclaves. If cows eat grass that has prions on them, that shit could potentially jump. And a lot of people ranch their cattle on public lands where infected deer are, and where wolves are unavailable due to politicians, who would otherwise prevent infected deer from spreading.
The best thing that we can do is have wolves clamp down on the few infected deer immediately rather than generate large pools of infection that then start cross-contaminating domestic livestock. Prions and ebola are the two things that really keep me up at night.
Interesting, I didn't know prions lasted so long on bare soil. I don't imagine it's a simple thing for a prion to jump from animal to animal though. Certainly not any less complex than jumping to humans? Right?
Yeah, about that… ever heard of Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease?
Yeah actually, my dad might have it as he ate plenty of beef in England at the time (not that that in any way makes me an authority on the subject) but there are plenty of prions out there and plenty of them don't do what Creutzfeldt-Jakobs did. It's not as if a misfolded protein exactly adapts or evolves to other biologies in order to procreate. It's just a fucked up protein. Biology is complex and there are many many differences in brain structure from animal to animal. A single misfolded protein could affect one brain incredibly differently than it affects another or even not at all. Prions are scary but they aren't trying to do anything because they aren't alive and have no drive to reproduce, they also don't mutate rapidly like viruses because they aren't made of DNA.
However I will admit. Prions are fucking terrifying
I'm not well-versed enough on prions to make an incredibly informed opinion. Apex predators somehow have managed to survive it for eons, though. Prions are extremely odd, and I'm sure one day we will figure out how to reverse their effect. There are some theories that prions could have formed the basis for life if life was seeded by asteroids, as they are incredibly resilient to heat, radiation, chemicals, etc.
From the CDC's website, it looks like CWD might not affect canids and might not affect humans, as we are just too different from the cloven-hoofed forest puppies. But much like consuming fish parasites that don't affect humans, it seems they don't recommend eating sick animals just on the off chance that you are patient zero for a new, fun, lethal protein :)