#Zombie #deer #Men #infected #deadly #brain #disease
Two men have died in the US after eating sick deer. The whole thing had already happened in 2022. But just a few days ago researchers found out in a publication the connection. The two men had apparently eaten meat from animals that were infected with Chronic Wasting Disease (CDW). One of them then showed symptoms of confusion and aggression.
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Chronic wasting disease is a nervous system disease in deer that is similar to bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) in cattle. It was first detected in deer in the United States in the 1960s and has since spread widely in deer populations in North America and Canada. In Norway, Finland and Sweden, individual infections have been observed in moose and reindeer in the past. To date there have been no confirmed cases in Germany.
The triggers are not viruses, but prions
Chronic Wasting Disease means something like “chronic wasting disease”. Sick animals lose weight and eventually die. They salivate heavily and have shaggy fur. They also lose their fear of people and move strangely because their motor skills are impaired by the disease.
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Because of these symptoms, sick animals are sometimes referred to as “zombie deer”. BSE, which produces similar symptoms in cattle, also became known as “mad cow disease.”
Like BSE, chronic wasting disease is one of the transmissible spongiform encephalopathies (TSE), a group of fatal brain diseases. In both cases, the triggers are neither viruses nor bacteria, but so-called prions. These are proteins that have a structural change: their amino acid chains are folded differently.
If prions enter the organism, they stimulate other proteins to also change their structure. This ultimately creates deposits in the nervous system that destroy nerve cells. The brain is destroyed and takes on a holey appearance. This is where the name of the disease comes from – spongiform means something like sponge. Prion diseases cannot be cured and are always fatal.
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Men developed Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease
It was already known that BSE could spread to humans. In the 1990s, people became particularly ill in Great Britain many people have Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (CJD), the human form of a prion infection. Here too, the brain is destroyed by the incorrectly folded proteins.
It is assumed that people at that time became infected through close contact with cattle and by eating contaminated meat. At that time, cattle in Great Britain were fed meat and bone meal from sheep that had scrapie, another form of prion disease. The feeding of animal meal to farm animals was then banned. Parts of the cattle in which prions could accumulate – such as the brain or spinal cord – are also removed after slaughter.
Until now, all that was known about chronic wasting disease in deer was that it was easily transmitted from animal to animal. It has never been observed before that people can become infected from wild animals. However, both men who ate the deer meat were diagnosed with Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (CJD), making infection seem likely. The researchers who discovered the two cases in the USA write that further investigations are necessary. However, consuming infected game could possibly pose a health risk.
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