The videos are likely to have view online. A deer is standing, starving and in a daze. Its head droops. It stumbles. This isn’t just a sick animal. It’s the scary aspect of Chronic Wasting Disease (CWD). This lethal prion disease have introduce in 32 states. There is one question scientists are begging to find out. Are we about to make a horrifying new discovery in our human health?
The Unseen Killer in the Herd
Then what is this zombie disease? Forget viruses or bacteria. CWD is cause by prions. These constitute malformed proteins. They can hardly be destroy. They gradually rot in the brain. This forms holes of sponges. The animal wastes away. It loses all coordination. What is so frightening is the fact that its toughness has been discovered. These prions have the ability of surviving years in soil. A region can take ten years to be infected. This renders it almost impossible to contain.
- Prions are a nightmare pathogen. They question our definition of what infectious agent is, at all, one of us, a wildlife pathologist in Wyoming.
It is an undiagnosed epidemic of spreading. It was discovered in a Colorado laboratory in 1967, and was a local curiosity. Now, it’s a continental crisis. In parts of Wisconsin, the rate of infection is mind boggling. The percentage of tested deer, which test positive, is up to 40. This isn’t a remote problem anymore. It’s in the backyard for many hunters and landowners.
Dilemma on a Hunter and a Case Study
Let us discuss the influence of the human factor. Among the tales of a Pennsylvania hunter. Last fall he had cut a great buck. It looked healthy. He also did his own meat. His family ate it for weeks. He was only later able to obtain the results of the test. The deer was CWD-positive. It turned into a matter of great anxiety to suddenly see that one of the family traditions was turned into a cause. This is a real world situation that is happening in thousands of occasions.
The economic toll is massive. Millions are spent on testing in state agencies. Sales of hunting license may decline. This is the direct funding of conservation. We are in an environmental and financial catastrophe.
Could It Jump to Humans?
This is the question of the multi-million dollars. Nobody has been confirmed to be a human case officially. But listen to the experts. Both CDC and WHO recommend that people should not consume meat that is infected by CWD. Why the caution? Look at history. Mad Cow Disease was a prion disease that was transferred to humans. It resulted in variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease. Over 200 people died.
- The barrier of the species is not a wall. It’s a leaky fence. This study of the macaque showed that, according to a neurologist who conducted studies on prion diseases.
That study was a wake-up call. In 2017, Canadian scientists injected meat that contained CWD in Macaques. These are monkeys that are so near us. They got sick. This is an extremely important finding that demonstrated that the barrier was breakable. The threat of the new human prion disease is a reality, yet not proved, but possible.
The Silent Carrier Problem: A Ticking Clock
This is a more dreadful finding. There are long incubation periods of prion diseases. An animal may take years before it becomes sick. She is losing prions in saliva and urine. It is polluting the environment. Now, apply that to humans. Suppose we might be dumb vectors through decades? This isn’t science fiction. It makes sense, which is a worst-case scenario and researchers are losing sleep because of this.
We are not ready to accept that fact. Our surveillance programs do not prepare us to have a prion pandemic. Diagnostic tools are slow. We are now competing with a fictitious timepiece. This is an emergency finding of our own vulnerability, which should act as an international wake-up call. The complacency days have come to an end.
A Call for Action, Not Fear
We should not sit on our heels. We must have an enormous stimulus to improved, quicker field tests. hunters must get there Deer tested. The states require additional budget on management. The public must demand it. It is a community health problem and not only one involving wildlife.
Finally, the revelation of the actual danger of CWD to the human race is outside of its scope. And are we going to regret and say we could have done more? Or shall we have done a great deal to avert a disaster? The choice is ours. Let’s choose wisely. The stakes couldn’t be higher.