Deer disease & zebra & # 39; could spread to humans, warn experts

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Experts have warned that people who consume deer meat are at risk of contracting a deadly infectious disease that is spreading in the American populations of the animal.

Chronic Wasting Disease (CWD) – an attenuated "zombie" deer disease – has infected deer, elk and moose in 24 US states and two Canadian provinces.

The disease attacks the tissues, including the brain and spinal cord, resulting in significant weight loss, loss of coordination, apathy, excessive salivation, excessive thirst, excessive urination, and intense aggression. the death of the animal.


Up to 15,000 infected animals are eaten each year, a number that could increase by 20% per year, according to Michael Osterholm, an infectious disease expert from the University of Minnesota.

"It is likely that cases of illness caused by chronic wasting related to the consumption of contaminated meat in humans will be documented in the years to come," he said.

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"It is possible that the number of human cases is substantial and not an isolated event," he told lawmakers, United States today reported.

Mr Osterholm compared the situation to the "mad cow" disease in Britain, where 177 people died in the United Kingdom between 1986 and 2014.

Eleven confirmed cases were diagnosed on a red deer farm near Ontario, Canada.

CWD was found in captive deer in the late 1960s, but was first seen in the wild about 40 years ago.

Until now, no documented case of human infection has been documented, but recent research shows that it can be transmitted to other animals, including primates, announced the US Center for Disease Control and Prevention.

Eating infected deer meat would be the most likely way to catch meat, say the centers, but there is no certainty.

Mr Osterholm said: "It's like throwing at the genetic roulette table.

"If you put that in a meat processing plant … it's kind of the worst nightmare."

Chronic debilitating disease is part of the same family of diseases, called transmissible spongiform encephalopathies, as bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE or mad cow disease) and variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (vCJD).


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