Fresh fears over ‘zombie deer disease’ that could soon spread to humans in ‘slow-moving disaster’
SCIENTISTS fear that a disease that turns deer into 'zombies' could could soon jump to humans after hundreds of animals were infected with the fatal illness.
Chronic wasting disease (CWD) attacks the brain and nervous system, leaving animals drooling, lethargic, stumbling and stick thin.
The telltale blank stare of infected deer has lead some to dub CWD 'zombie deer disease'.
It isn't new, but experts say it has been spreading stealthily across North America, with case numbers rising.
Alarms were sounded after hundreds of deer in Yellowstone National Park in Wyoming were found to have been infected with the highly contagious and fatal illness.
The Wyoming Game and Fish Department tested meat from 6,701 deer, elk and moose in 2022, detecting the disease in about 800 samples.
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Yellowstone is the US's most famous nature reserve, attracting millions of visitors yearly.
In 2022 alone, approximately 3.29million people traipsed through the park, according to .
CWD can affect most wild and farmed deer species and has been found in the US and Canada, as well as South Korea and Norway, the said.
CWD is caused by prions - abnormal pathogenic proteins - that cause changes in animals brains and nervous systems.
Aside from a blank facial expression, deer may stumble and have poor coordination, appear listless, walk in repeat patterns and have tremors, according to the (DEFRA).
It may take over a year for an infected animal to develop symptoms of the disease, for which there is no treatment or vaccine.
Because of how long it takes symptoms to show, some deer might die before they become drooling and lethargic and get the telltale 'blank stare' - but CWD is fatal.
Scientists have been predicting the 'zombie deer disease' would reach Yellowstone park for decades, reported.
Of particular concern is that fact that people might be eating CWD-infected animals without knowing.
In 2017, 7,000 to 15,000 CWD-infected animals a year were unwittingly consumed by humans, according to the Alliance for Public Wildlife.
It estimated that that number would increase by 20 per cent yearly.
Dr Anderson said thousands of people have probably eaten meat from infected deer in Wisconsin.
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Dr Raina Plowright, a disease ecologist at Cornell University, told The Guardian that CWD should be viewed in the context of disease outbreaks occurring in agricultural environments, where contact with disease-carrying animals is increasing.
It comes after UK health chiefs warned in October that they're tracking four new 'zoonotic' bugs - diseases that jump from animals to humans.