Here's what you need to know about the "zombie deer" disease

A disease affecting animals, dubbed the "zombie deer" disease, has been identified in more than 20 states. You may already be alarmed: it sparked a burst of reporting earlier this month when a Minnesota official suggested we could see human cases in the years to come.

Chronic debilitating disease, or CDD, is a communicable disease Spongiform encephalopathy, a category of diseases that progressively affect the brain and nervous system, is probably caused by poorly folded proteins called prions. The prions accumulate in the brain cells of an animal until they burst. (The mad cow family falls into the same category.) As their brains deteriorate, infected deer lose weight, have trouble moving, drool a lot, and cringe, hence the nickname " zombie ". The disease is always deadly and there is no cure. It affects animals in the deer family, which includes elk and moose, and scientists believe that it is transmitted through contact with bodily fluids and tissues. He appeared in the wild and in several deer farms scattered in the United States, which number in the thousands.

For those who hold their breath since you read this line about human cases, know this: the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) have discovered no causal link between MDC and cases of Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, a similar illness that affects humans, although he investigated several cases where hunters or venison eaters contracted it.

It takes two to three weeks for a hunter to know if his catch is carrying the disease. At this point, he may have already paid to have him massacred.

Yet researchers have discovered through experimental studies that the MDC can infect laboratory mice and macaques, species that are more genetically similar to humans than deer, and CDC official position is that "these experimental studies raise the concern that the MDC may pose a risk to people". Cooking meat does not eliminate the risk of disease transmission.

Michael Osterholm, director of the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy at the University of Minnesota, referred to these laboratory studies earlier this month. has explained the potential public health risks due to the MDC for members of the state legislature as part of a call for funds to develop diagnostic tests of MDC. "It is likely that human cases of chronic debilitating disease associated with the consumption of meat contaminated with chronic waste will be documented in the coming years," Osterholm told members, citing statistics from the Alliance for Public Wildlife with positive estimates between 7,000 and 15,000 people. the animals are consumed each year, a number that, according to the alliance, could increase by 20% per year. Osterholm added that a slight rise in the overall transmission of the disease over the past decade "has changed the game."

Osterholm was one of the researchers who, in the 1980s and 1990s, lobbied to prevent the meat of animals infected with mad cow disease from entering the supply chain, even though the meat industry insisted that prions should not be able to move from one species to the other in the case of mad cow disease). "We were considered the bad news of the outcast at the time," he said in his speech, adding that the first human case had been declared 10 years after the identification of the disease in cows. There were about 200 confirmed human cases the disease associated with mad cow since the mid-1990s; Osterholm said that only 1% of infected people had symptoms due to the long dormancy period of the disease.

Once it became apparent that mad cow disease could affect humans, entities such as the World Health Organization (WHO) and the CDC began to take a serious interest in strategies to prevent infected animals from entering food reserves. It's harder than it looks. Many CWD-positive cervids do not show symptoms for months or years, which means that an infected deer could be transported from one farm to another and show no symptoms for a long time before losing control. weight or drooling. At that time, having lived with other animals for a while, he may have already spread the disease. (It's not hypothetical, it happened last week.)

IInfected deer populations are mainly concentrated in the Midwest, and states responded with various preventive measures.

The University of Minnesota has proposed developing rapid rotation tests to make it easier for hunters and farmers to identify animals with CWD. Osterholm said that it is now two to three weeks for a hunter to know if his catch is carrying the disease. At this point, he may have already paid to have him massacred.

At present, infected deer populations are mainly concentrated in the Midwest, and states have responded with various preventive measures. In Minnesota, proposals have been made to stop the construction of new deer farms and to require fences 10 feet high around the perimeters of existing farms. Wisconsin agriculture officials have ordered deer farms to kill their animals when a case is confirmed. Tennessee officials have put in place mandatory sampling stations for deer caught in high-risk areas.

Nevertheless, advocates from affected states are wondering if their legislatures could do more. Paul A. Smith, columnist for the MIlwaukee Journal Sentinel, wrote last week he was not holding his breath for further action by the Wisconsin legislature. In his column, he proposes a state buyback of deer-related business operations, an idea that has already attracted resistance from deer industry groups who base their hopes on selective breeding. At present, selective breeding can not render animals immune to CWD; it is unlikely to be an immediate solution to the problem. Smith recognizes that redemptions may not even be effective because the disease may continue to spread in wild populations.

For the moment, officials recommend that people avoid eating venison from infected deer as much as possible. (If this does not seem particularly useful, why not eat a deer that looks like a zombie?) It is advisable to hunters, waiting not to touch the brain and spine of animals.