Orange County, CA - February 27th, 2019 - The Center for Disease Control issued a warning about the unofficial named "zombie" deer disease, spreading in the United States. The CDC warns that consuming infected deer meat that contains chronic wasting disease (CWD), may lead to the disease spreading to humans within the next few years.
CWD is a prion disease; it’s caused by proteins (called prions) that attack the brain and spinal tissue. Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy (BSE), or Mad Cow Disease is also a prion disease. As a human illness, BSE is called Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (CJD). CWD advances through bodily fluids in deer and elk, either through contamination of soil, food, water or directly.
According to the CDC, after an animal becomes infected, it can start to act confused and stumble. The animal may rapidly lose weight, therefore, the “wasting” detail of the disease’s name. There is no treatment or cure for CWD, and it is lethal to animals who become contaminated. Many animals develop the symptoms listed, while others die without developing any symptoms.
Twenty-four U.S states and two Canadian provinces discovered an outbreak of CWD among free-ranging mule deer, elk, white-tailed deer, and moose. Although there are no reported cases of CWD in humans, studies have shown that the disease can be passed from animals other than deer, including primates. It is considered that the route of transmission is by consuming infected meat.
A study that began in 2009 by Canadian and German scientists evaluated whether CWD can be transmitted to macaques, which is a type of monkey that is genetically closer to people than any other animal that has been infected with CWD. In July of 2017, the researchers presented a summary of the study’s development in which they showed that CWD was transmitted to monkeys that were fed infected meat (muscle tissue) or brain tissue from CWD-infected deer and elk. Nevertheless, the previous study did not present any success in transmitting CWD to macaques, and the reasons for the different results are unknown.
Approximately 7,000 to 15,000 animals are infected with CWD and are consumed every year. According to the Alliance for Public Wildlife, this number could rise by 20 percent annually“It is probable that human cases of chronic wasting disease associated with consumption with contaminated meat will be documented in the years ahead. It’s also possible the number of human cases will be substantial and will not be isolated events,” said Michael Osterholm, the director of the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy at the University of Minnesota.
At this time, there is no evidence proving whether or not chronic wasting disease could be spread to humans. The World Health Organization has reiterated the importance of keeping all prion diseases away from the human food chain.
To get more information on CWD in animals, click the following link to the CDC website:
