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‘Zombie deer disease’ epidemic spreads in Yellowstone as scientists raise fears it may jump to humans (www.theguardian.com)

submitted 6 months ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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[-] [email protected] 214 points 6 months ago

This is literally why we have apex predators such as wolves. They help clamp down on the old and the sick so that prions (mad cow disease) does not spread to other species or humans. It cannot infect wolves.

When you kill off all the apex predators, like when Montana governor Greg Gianforte authorized the massacre of 100 wolves, you see explosions of extremely dangerous diseases and land degradation as deer damage tree roots, gardens, meadows, streams, and farms.

Not only that, but killing members of wolf packs causes their families to fall apart and everyone to scatter. That means wolves alone. Which cannot hunt pack animals which require coordination. So then they go after the easiest meal: dumbass farm animals who have zero survival instincts and whose ranchers no longer employ people to look after the herds in great enough numbers like the olden days. The cycle then perpetuates, as mad-cow contaminated soils spread and spread....

[-] [email protected] 84 points 6 months ago

Damn.... It's almost like we should leave mother nature the fuck alone

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[-] [email protected] 30 points 6 months ago

Can't infect wolves? I'm no expert here but I don't feel like a vertebrate mammal with a brain could be completely immune to prions. Do you have any more information on that claim?

[-] [email protected] 51 points 6 months ago

It's in the OP article. They haven't found any infections yet, and it doesn't appear to affect them. Apex predators have, prior to human intervention, always hunted the old, the young, and the sick. Mother nature appears to have found a way around apex predators all dying from disease to balance the environment.

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[-] [email protected] 14 points 6 months ago

Can't.... Infect.... Wolves?

You do know that prions aren't living things right? They don't "infect", they are a physical change to a compound (protein) that spreads to other similar compounds it touches. It's not a virus, or a bacteria.

Unless wolves lack the same proteins that deer also have? Usually this is a mammal thing, not a species thing.

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[-] vexikron 168 points 6 months ago* (last edited 6 months ago)

If a mad-cow-like disease jumped the barrier to humans and began spreading through Americans, the main problem in eradicating it would be that basically no one would be able to tell the difference from the average 'Enthusiastic' Republican Voter and someone whose brain is melting due to an actual pathogen.

[-] [email protected] 75 points 6 months ago

Lucky for us prions do not spread except via ingestion...

Realises that we wanted to eat the rich

[-] [email protected] 21 points 6 months ago* (last edited 6 months ago)

We’re actually not sure about that. Some prions do spread by eating the meat of infected animals, but I think we can be pretty sure that’s not what’s happening in a wild deer population. Prions can also be found in the environment, including deposited on grasses and plants, where that can last a very long time.

We do not know if this disease is or will become communicable to predator animals or what the potential is for environmental spread to livestock. We do know a bit more about the BSE than some others, but there’s a bunch we know exist that we know little to nothing about, and it’s guaranteed there’s more out there that we haven’t encountered yet.

[-] [email protected] 9 points 6 months ago

Deer can and do eat meat when available

[-] [email protected] 9 points 6 months ago

Occasionally they do consume meat as far as I know (as several herbivores do), but if that were a serious candidate it would be among the principle lines of transmission being investigated.

Zoonotic diseases are investigated by cross-disciplinary teams with experience ranging from public health and disease experts to wildlife biologists and ecologists. I did some work on a similar topic with the National Parks Service so I know a bit about how these are approached. I have no involvement with this and I’ve never worked on prion contagion models - like I said, we just don’t know. But I do have experience in the area.

Prions have been found in soil, on grass and plants, and do not get quickly degraded by sun and rain. We do know that this disease is density dependent, so you’d need a model of deer going carnivore and cannibal in a density dependent natural model, which is not a phenomenon I’m familiar with.

So what I’m saying is that we just don’t know what the deer-deer vector is or if a predation vector exists as a secondary transmission or if one will appear.

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[-] [email protected] 12 points 6 months ago

Just eat the meaty parts, avoid the brain and spinal cord and you're all good.

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[-] [email protected] 48 points 6 months ago

fookin' prions

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[-] [email protected] 41 points 6 months ago

From the little I’ve read on this it appears that the infectious cells favor a functional brain so that means all maga evangelical republicans are safe.

[-] [email protected] 22 points 6 months ago

That's not really a good news though. ;(

[-] [email protected] 33 points 6 months ago

Without reading, is it Chronic wasting? I just checked in on that the other day and the CDC didn't seem to think it was a big deal unless you are in a hotzone.

[-] [email protected] 23 points 6 months ago

Yeah. CWD a big problem but it isn't going to cause a zombie apocalypse like the headline implies.

[-] [email protected] 22 points 6 months ago* (last edited 6 months ago)

Prion diseases can take decades to show symptoms, like with CJD, and are very hard to test for in humans.

It might not be a question of whether it can jump species barriers, but when we will know it did, which is why the CDC can't and won't ring any alarm bells, just advise caution, until it's either too late for individuals or a confirmed non-issue.

There was a study that claimed it had jumped to chimps/monkeys in a testing environment but last I heard it was disputed, but that still leaves the average citizen with plenty of reason to not

Checks notes

Eat a diseased animal.

Source your venison, it should be tested if it's from an affected area but you never can trust suppliers for wild game.

Consider just eating, you know, cow, or only venison from a trusted source.

Preferably the person that shot and had it butchered.

[-] [email protected] 15 points 6 months ago

Consider just eating, you know, cow, or only venison from a trusted source.

Preferably the person that shot and had it butchered.

Eat the person who shot the deer? Dang that's some extreme veganism.

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[-] [email protected] 30 points 6 months ago

who had zombie invasion on their 2024 bingo card?

[-] [email protected] 11 points 6 months ago

Honestly, natural disaster/Apocalypse has been on mine since 2021

[-] [email protected] 9 points 6 months ago

it's always on my bingo card. i am a very hopeful person.

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[-] [email protected] 28 points 6 months ago

Oh its totally fine it's not like we've made the planet warmer allowing viruses to mutilate easier and for longer or like how we haven't been taking part in a centuries long destruction of the deers native habitat forcing them into populated areas right?... Right?

[-] [email protected] 44 points 6 months ago

It's not a virus.

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[-] [email protected] 26 points 6 months ago

Add it to “What else can fuck millennials?” pile.

[-] [email protected] 24 points 6 months ago

A particularly concerning illness for me.

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[-] [email protected] 21 points 6 months ago

I believe it's made the jump into a certain species of monkey in a lab environment last I knew, but the jump to humans hasn't been seen and isn't a given. This is a clickbait title. If you're hunting game, make sure to get it tested with samples taken at a wildlife check station before consuming and you're likely safe here.

[-] [email protected] 20 points 6 months ago

scientists raise fears it may jump to humans

Who says it hasn't? I mean, have you looked at our politics lately?

[-] [email protected] 16 points 6 months ago

POLITICS! Amiright folks?!

[-] [email protected] 19 points 6 months ago

I see we are lining up for a great 2024

[-] [email protected] 15 points 6 months ago

Prions sounds like a very tiny, evil shrimp

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[-] [email protected] 14 points 6 months ago

Yeah here we go! We all wanted a zombie outbreak and all we got was corona lockdowns. This is more like it! Bring it on!

[-] [email protected] 13 points 6 months ago

Oh deer

[-] [email protected] 14 points 6 months ago

(╯°□°)╯︵ ┻━┻

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[-] [email protected] 12 points 6 months ago

Prions are freaky.

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this post was submitted on 22 Dec 2023

431 points (98.4% liked)

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