A Worrying Brain Disease Spreading in Wildlife
- A fatal and infectious brain disease called Chronic Wasting Disease (CWD) is spreading among deer, elk, and moose populations in North America and other parts of the world.
- It’s often called “zombie deer disease” because of the strange symptoms it causes in animals, such as drastic weight loss, stumbling, listlessness, and a lack of fear.
- CWD is caused by abnormal proteins called prions. These are not bacteria or viruses; they are misfolded proteins that trigger other normal proteins in the brain to misfold, creating a chain reaction that destroys brain tissue.
- The biggest concern is whether this disease can jump from animals to humans, similar to how “Mad Cow Disease” did. So far, there have been no confirmed cases of CWD in people. However, health officials strongly advise hunters not to eat meat from animals that look sick or have tested positive for CWD.
MBH/PS