You've probably heard about “zombie deer”, which look creepy and behave strangely. Animals lose coordination of movements, weaken and suffer from severe exhaustion. The reason, as our regular readers probably know, is a deadly and incurable spongiform encephalopathy called Chronic Wasting Disease (CHD). HIB gained worldwide fame, so to speak, in 2019, when the world media announced «hordes of zombie deer» in Canada and the USA. The news, as expected, attracted the attention of a wide audience, and infected animals began to be noticed in more and more countries. Even then, experts warned about the possible transmission of the disease from deer to humans, but there were no recorded cases. Recently, however, researchers from the United States reported the death of two hunters from an unknown neurological disease. The report, prepared by experts from the University of Texas, said the men likely became infected with CWD by eating meat from diseased animals.
Researchers from the United States reported the death of two hunters from an unknown neurological disease. Is it really the «zombie deer» diseases? transmitted to people? Image: content.osgnetworks.tv
Contents
- 1 The most terrible disease in the world
- 2 What is Hib?
- 3 Can Hib be transmitted to people?
- 4 Mysterious deaths of hunters in the USA
The most terrible disease in the world
There are a huge number of dangerous infectious and viral diseases in the world, but the most terrible are those that affect the brain in a very sophisticated way. We are talking about prions– the most dangerous infectious agents on Earth. These tiny, misfolded proteins contain no genetic material and damage healthy brain cells. The harm caused by their exposure is enormous, and the reason why previously normal proteins turn into pathogenic proteins is unknown.
Prions were first described in 1982 by Dr. Stanley Prusiner of the University of California School of Medicine, who discovered that prions are formed from proteins normally found in the brain. When the proteins turn into prions, they accumulate in tissues and spread throughout the brain, eventually turning it into something like a sponge (for this reason, prion diseases are referred to as transmissible spongiform encephalopathy (TSE)).
The brain of a patient infected with Creutzfield-Jakob disease (mad cow disease). Image: medpagetoday.net
Needless to say, infection with prions leads to rapidly progressing dementia and painful death. The most famous disease caused by these abnormal proteins that affects people and animals is Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (CJD), also known as mad cow disease.
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Unfortunately, all neurodegenerative diseases caused by prions cannot be treated, and death occurs in 100% of cases after the first symptoms appear. But the worst thing, nevertheless, is the resistance of these abnormal proteins to radiation, high temperatures (prions do not die even at a temperature of +600°C), the action of proteases and chemicals such as alcohol, formaldehyde, etc.
What is HIB?
Since prions infect animals and humans, they cause various neurodegenerative diseases, including CJD (mad cow disease), kuru disease and CWD – from the English Chronic wasting disease (CWD), the first reports of which appeared in the late 1960s, when researchers from Colorado described the strange behavior of black-tailed deer. Several decades later, the disease spread to other states, after which it became obvious that the entire cervid family is susceptible to infection with Hib.
To date, Hib outbreaks have been reported in 32 US states, three Canadian provinces, Norway, Finland, Sweden, South Korea and Russia. Farmed animals are also among the infected animals.
Animals infected with Hib die soon after symptoms appear. Image: cdn.forumcomm.com
According to the researchers, symptoms of CWD develop slowly in all members of the deer family (in some cases the process takes several years), but as it progresses, changes in behavior and appearance may be observed, such as loss of fear of people, drooling, excessive thirst, and lack of coordination. movements and exhaustion.
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In a word, outwardly unhappy animals often resemble zombies, which is why CWD began to be unofficially called the “zombie deer” disease. (zombie deer disease). Of great concern is the fact that prions are extremely contagious and Hib is spread between animals through contact with contaminated body fluids and tissues or through the environment.
Can Hib be transmitted to people?
Researchers have been talking about the fact that Hib can potentially be transmitted to humans for a long time. Thus, in February 2019, experts from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) published a warning about the dangers of eating deer meat. At the same time, Michael Osterholm, director of the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy, suggested that transmission of CWD from deer to humans may have already occurred.
Let us remember that in the past it took scientists about 10 years to realize that bovine spongiform encephalopathy (mad cow disease) is transmitted to humans. Given this alarming precedent, human infection with any form of Hib is quite high. «The key factor in the fatal disease and its fundamental difference from mad cow disease is muscle wasting. Thus, everyone who consumes venison runs the risk of falling victim to prion disease,” Ostrekholm said in an interview with the British The Independent.
Remember that any comparisons of sick deer with zombies are unscientific. Image: citizen-times.com
Read even more interesting articles about the latest scientific discoveries in the field of medicine and biotechnology on our Yandex.Zen channel – articles that are not on the site are regularly published there!
Today, Osterholm's words seem prophetic – researchers recently identified a possible connection between the deaths of two hunters from a rare neurological disease. A study by medical experts at the University of Texas, published in the journal Neurology, said the men likely became infected by eating infected deer.
Mysterious deaths of hunters in the USA
Although there is no definitive evidence of the transmission of CWD from animals to humans today, the data published in the work looks alarming.
As the researchers write, both men hunted in the same house and ate meat from the same population of deer before becoming ill. The first to die was a 72-year-old man in 2022, who, according to the authors, “quickly became confused and aggressive.”
The man apparently consumed deer meat infected with Hib. A friend of his who ate venison from the same animal population later died of Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (CJD). Symptoms of CJD generally resemble those of dementia, although the condition of such patients worsens much more quickly, the paper says.
More and more diseases are being transmitted from animals to humans. Image: wp-cpr.s3.amazonaws.com
The friend of the deceased hunter died a month after exhibiting symptoms characteristic of CJD – seizures, agitation and aggression. An autopsy ultimately confirmed the diagnosis – a variant form of CJD called sCJDMM1. Let us recall that earlier researchers from the USA discovered a new, extremely rare strain of CJD – vCJD – different from the classical one (CJD) and potentially dangerous for people.
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As the authors of the new study write, their discovery may indicate
«possible new transmission of Hib from animals to humans& #187;. And while the scientists acknowledge that their work is not definitive proof that eating meat from CWD-infected deer will ultimately cause CJD in humans, the possibility cannot be completely ruled out.
Although a cause-and-effect relationship remains unproven, the reported cases highlight the need for further study of the potential risks and public health implications of consuming meat from CHIB-infected deer, the article states.
Experts recommend not eating the meat of infected deer. Image: amazonaws.com
Read also: Could mutations of the rabies virus lead to an outbreak of “zombie” infection?
Today, many serious questions remain about the transmission of the disease from one species to another , and previous studies have shown that CWD is transmitted to primates. Fortunately, humanity is not threatened with a zombie apocalypse of Hollywood proportions, but researchers around the world are closely monitoring the situation with Hib and other prion diseases.