A bizarre and highly contagious virus is currently creating havoc in the deer herds of Canada, a recent report specified.
According to Financial Express, health experts said the Chronic Wasting Disease or CWD is a concern in at least two of the provinces of Canada, specifically Alberta and Saskatchewan.
Essentially, CWD is a highly transmissible disease. As per the report, the CWD was first detected at a research facility in the late 1960s at a research facility.
The same disease was later discovered in 1981l, in the wild populations in Colorado. This Chronic wasting disease has since been detected in at least 26 states, now being considered an endemic in Nebraska, Colorado, Wisconsin, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Montana, Kansas, and Minnesota.
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A whitetail deer stands among the trees on November 27, 2017, near Banff, Alberta.
Hunters Susceptible to CWD
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, hunters are specifically susceptible to this virus. The agency suggested that this disease could spread to humans by eating infected deer or elk.
The CWD belongs to an unusual class of pathogens known as prions. It belongs to the same classification of bovine springform encephalopathy or BSE disease, which is also typically known as the mad cow disease.
Meanwhile, Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, or vCJD which is affecting humans and Scrapie, infecting sheep and goats, also belonging to the same classification as CWD, a related Verified News Explorer Network report said.
Until now, there have not been any cases recorded in humans thus far, although the CDC has strongly recommended not to have deer that have been harvested from the areas affected by the disease, and not to eat the meat it positively affected.
Turning Animals Into 'Zombies'
In 2018, Men's Health reported, that the disease was hitting elk and deer populations in the US and Canada, transforming animals into "zombies."
It could theoretically spread to humans and eat away at the brain in a similar way mad cow disease has killed some humans who ate infected cow meat.
The keyword here though is "theoretically." Whereas recent reports proposed it was spreading among some four-legged herds, no humans have had been infected by or died of CWD. As earlier mentioned, CWD is one of the family of diseases resulting from prions, infectious, irregularly shaped proteins.
The disease is called "zombie deer" disease as this specific prion is attacking the brains of infected deer, making them act oddly, have a vacant look, drool, and turn uncoordinated, aggressive, and emaciated, among other symptoms. Any animal may harbor the disease for one year or more prior to its impacts beginning to show up, although, over time, it eventually dies.
Cooking Infected Deer Won't Make the Animal Clean
Frying the deer, or cooking it up on a high heat won't cause the animal's death or kill it off. According to Perry Habecker, VMD, the chief large animal pathology Service, New Bolton Center, at the University of Pennsylvania School of Veterinary Medicine.
The expert said it does not work like a bacterial infection. This is a misshapen protein, that's getting into the body and causing other proteins to misfold.
Any human involved with possibly infected animals should avoid exposure of body fluid, as well, since infection could potentially take place through "nicks and cuts in the skin." More so, people need to wear gloves and follow safety protocols their local health departments and wildlife and parks experts recommend.
Related information about Zombie Deer Disease is shown on HoffPost's YouTube video below:
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