Two hunters who ate meat from deer known to have chronic wasting disease, or “zombie deer disease,” developed similar neurological symptoms and died, indicating the disease was transmitted from animals to humans. There are growing concerns that this may occur.
Chronic wasting disease (CWD) was discovered in deer in northern Colorado and southern Wyoming in the 1990s and has been recorded in free-ranging deer, elk and elk in at least 32 states across the continental United States, the United States said. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Deer infected with CWD may be called “Zombie Deer” Because this disease causes weight loss, lack of coordination, stumbling, sluggishness, weight loss, drooling and lack of fear of people.
Scientists and health officials have long feared that CWD could jump to humans, as mad cow disease did in the UK in the 1990s. In 2022, Canadian scientists published a study based on research in mice. Suggests the risk of CWD infecting humans.
Here’s what you need to know about chronic wasting disease and whether you should worry about it.
Researchers identify troubling incident that killed two people
Researchers at the University of Texas at San Antonio Health Science Center found that two hunters who ate meat from a deer population known to have CWD were diagnosed with sporadic Creutzfeldt disease, a neurological disease similar to CWD. We reported how he developed Jacob’s disease (CJD) and died in 2022.
Researchers said the second person to die, a 77-year-old man, suffered from “rapid onset confusion and aggression” and died within a month despite treatment.
“The patient’s medical history, including similar cases in his social group, suggests the possibility of new animal-to-human transmission of CWD,” they said. written in the case reportwas presented earlier this month at the American Academy of Neurology’s annual meeting and published in the peer-reviewed journal Neurology.
Researchers have not revealed where the men lived or where they hunted. However, the highest concentrations of deer infected with CWD are in Kansas, Nebraska, Wisconsin and Wyoming. CDC and we.Geological survey I will report it.
Researchers said this case was not a proven case of infection, as it is difficult to differentiate between these diseases. However, “this cluster highlights the need for further investigation into the potential risks and public health implications of consuming CWD-infected deer,” the researchers wrote.
“Zombie deer disease”:What you need to know about chronic wasting disease and its prevalence in the United States.
What is “zombie deer disease”? What is prion disease?
Zombie deer disease, also known as chronic wasting disease, is a prion disease, a rare, progressive and fatal neurodegenerative disease that affects deer, elk, elk and other animals, the CDC says.
In prion diseases, the abnormal folding of certain “prion proteins” causes brain damage and other symptoms, according to the CDC. prion diseaseusually progresses rapidly, is always fatal, and can affect humans and animals.
Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (CJD) and variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (vCJD), a type of mad cow disease, are prion diseases found in humans.
mad cow disease This is an example of a prion disease that can be transmitted from cows to humans, and some researchers liken it to “zombie deer disease.”
For example, with mad cow disease, it typically took four to six years for cows to show symptoms. food and drug administration. Deer may have an incubation period of up to two years before symptoms appear. Therefore, an animal may have a disease but appear normal until symptoms such as weight loss appear, the researchers say. United States Geological Survey.
With the outbreak of mad cow disease (officially known as bovine spongiform encephalopathy, BSE), the development of vCJD in humans by eating contaminated cow meat suggests that chronic wasting disease (CWD) may be transmitted to humans. Scientists are concerned about gender.
Is “zombie deer disease” contagious to humans?
There are no known cases of “zombie deer disease” being transmitted from deer to humans, but concerns have grown since authorities discovered it. Pedestrian lying among dead deer in Yellowstone National Park in November.
“So far, there has been no transmission from deer or elk to humans,” said Jennifer Mullinax, an associate professor of wildlife ecology and management at the University of Maryland. BBC. “However, given the nature of prions, the CDC and other agencies have supported every effort to eliminate prion diseases from the food chain.”
Michael Osterholm, director of the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy at the University of Minnesota, said if CWD were transmitted to humans, it could create a “potential crisis” similar to that caused by mad cow disease. BBC.
“However, it is important to note that BSE and CWD prions are structurally different, and it is not yet known whether the pathology and clinical manifestations will be equivalent when CWD infection occurs in humans.” he said.
Meanwhile, chronic wasting disease continues to spread to more states, most recently Indiana. The disease was detected earlier this month in a male white-tailed deer in the northeastern part of Michigan, which borders parts of the state where CWD had previously been detected. According to the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy.
United States Geological Survey On Friday, we updated our chronic wasting disease tracking to include 33 states (adding Indiana), four Canadian provinces, and four other countries (Finland, Norway, Sweden, and South Korea).
Contributors: Sara Chernikov and Julia Gomez.
Follow Mike Snyder on X and Threads: @mikesnider & mike snyder.
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