This is literally why we have apex predators such as wolves. They help clamp down on the old and the sick so that prions (mad cow disease) does not spread to other species or humans. It cannot infect wolves.
When you kill off all the apex predators, like when Montana governor Greg Gianforte authorized the massacre of 100 wolves, you see explosions of extremely dangerous diseases and land degradation as deer damage tree roots, gardens, meadows, streams, and farms.
Not only that, but killing members of wolf packs causes their families to fall apart and everyone to scatter. That means wolves alone. Which cannot hunt pack animals which require coordination. So then they go after the easiest meal: dumbass farm animals who have zero survival instincts and whose ranchers no longer employ people to look after the herds in great enough numbers like the olden days. The cycle then perpetuates, as mad-cow contaminated soils spread and spread…
The more we learn, the better it will be for all species. We’ll figure it out eventually… or die out
Can’t infect wolves? I’m no expert here but I don’t feel like a vertebrate mammal with a brain could be completely immune to prions. Do you have any more information on that claim?
It’s in the OP article. They haven’t found any infections yet, and it doesn’t appear to affect them. Apex predators have, prior to human intervention, always hunted the old, the young, and the sick. Mother nature appears to have found a way around apex predators all dying from disease to balance the environment.
Afaik it’s because they naturally die before the disease becomes crippling. Or it becomes crippling around or after the normal lifespan of the animal. It doesn’t mean they aren’t affected, it means it doesn’t affect them before they would normally die…
Please don’t anthropomorphize “mother nature”. Mother nature doesn’t think, or make decisions, it is a natural progression of life and death… There is a process and a cycle to much of it, hand waving “mother nature finds a way” ignores and dismisses the reality of it, and excludes the science that helps us understand how our world actually works.
Can’t… Infect… Wolves?
You do know that prions aren’t living things right? They don’t “infect”, they are a physical change to a compound (protein) that spreads to other similar compounds it touches. It’s not a virus, or a bacteria.
Unless wolves lack the same proteins that deer also have? Usually this is a mammal thing, not a species thing.
If a mad-cow-like disease jumped the barrier to humans and began spreading through Americans, the main problem in eradicating it would be that basically no one would be able to tell the difference from the average ‘Enthusiastic’ Republican Voter and someone whose brain is melting due to an actual pathogen.
Lucky for us prions do not spread except via ingestion…
Realises that we wanted to eat the rich
We’re actually not sure about that. Some prions do spread by eating the meat of infected animals, but I think we can be pretty sure that’s not what’s happening in a wild deer population. Prions can also be found in the environment, including deposited on grasses and plants, where that can last a very long time.
We do not know if this disease is or will become communicable to predator animals or what the potential is for environmental spread to livestock. We do know a bit more about the BSE than some others, but there’s a bunch we know exist that we know little to nothing about, and it’s guaranteed there’s more out there that we haven’t encountered yet.
Just eat the meaty parts, avoid the brain and spinal cord and you’re all good.
The problem is that the brain is the part you want to splatter all over the Italian marble floors of their mansions.
New plan live butchering so that the brain and spine is still intact and no need to worry about Mad Bougie disease.
I don’t think enough people are eating venison regularly for a this prion to be a serious threat even if it manages to transmit to humans
Have you seen zombie movies? It only takes ONE unassuming hunter… and then it immediately mutates into blah blah magic nonsense ensues…
and then it is airborne, and bloodborne
…
You are correct of course. =P
Shoot an infected deer in the head or have it otherwise die violently on the ground. Prions can last in the soil for years and years. Misfolded proteins are basically invulnerable, even in shit like autoclaves. If cows eat grass that has prions on them, that shit could potentially jump. And a lot of people ranch their cattle on public lands where infected deer are, and where wolves are unavailable due to politicians, who would otherwise prevent infected deer from spreading.
The best thing that we can do is have wolves clamp down on the few infected deer immediately rather than generate large pools of infection that then start cross-contaminating domestic livestock. Prions and ebola are the two things that really keep me up at night.
Interesting, I didn’t know prions lasted so long on bare soil. I don’t imagine it’s a simple thing for a prion to jump from animal to animal though. Certainly not any less complex than jumping to humans? Right?
It probably depends on where you are, different parts of the country and different social circles have more or less hunters and different hunting cultures.
I know that around me in the circles I run in I pretty much everyone I know either hunts or has a friend (or multiple friends) who does and can/will hook them up with venison now and then.
If you have a couple hunters in a family, they fill all of their tags, are generous about sharing their venison with family and friends, if they’re unlucky enough that those deer have CWD, then that could potentially be dozens of people exposed.
I say this as someone who regularly eats venison and lives in a place where it’s relatively common as well but it still isn’t nearly as threatening as something like mad cow. Pretty much everyone eats beef.
It’s a lot easier to tell people don’t eat venison you hunted and contain it than it is halt the entire beef industry and tag everyone who may have eaten it yk?
I’m not saying it wouldn’t be bad, only that we’ve been through much worse as far as prions go and one like this would be relatively speaking, less of a threat
fookin’ prions
From the little I’ve read on this it appears that the infectious cells favor a functional brain so that means all maga evangelical republicans are safe.
Without reading, is it Chronic wasting? I just checked in on that the other day and the CDC didn’t seem to think it was a big deal unless you are in a hotzone.
Yeah. CWD a big problem but it isn’t going to cause a zombie apocalypse like the headline implies.
Prion diseases can take decades to show symptoms, like with CJD, and are very hard to test for in humans.
It might not be a question of whether it can jump species barriers, but when we will know it did, which is why the CDC can’t and won’t ring any alarm bells, just advise caution, until it’s either too late for individuals or a confirmed non-issue.
There was a study that claimed it had jumped to chimps/monkeys in a testing environment but last I heard it was disputed, but that still leaves the average citizen with plenty of reason to not
Checks notes
Eat a diseased animal.
Source your venison, it should be tested if it’s from an affected area but you never can trust suppliers for wild game.
Consider just eating, you know, cow, or only venison from a trusted source.
Preferably the person that shot and had it butchered.
Consider just eating, you know, cow, or only venison from a trusted source.
Preferably the person that shot and had it butchered.
Eat the person who shot the deer? Dang that’s some extreme veganism.
The issue is that deer dont eat each other often enough for that to be how they spread it among each other.
So whatever vector is moving it around in them, which we dont actually know yet, is the more likely risk of an actual jump. Cant not take a risk if you cant tell if its risky.
