USA: Hobby Hunters Face the Zombie Disease in Deer

In the USA, a disease is attacking the brains and spinal cords of wild animals.

Cases have also been reported in Europe. Thousands of wild animals are said to be infected with the neurological disease CWD (Chronic Wasting Disease). CWD belongs to the same family as mad cow disease. This zombie disease causes elk, deer, and roe deer to behave erratically. There is no cure, and the animals die.

The reports make for dramatic reading: “zombie deer” are spreading ever further across the USA, their central nervous systems destroyed by an abnormal protein. It is only a matter of time before humans are affected. The pathogen eats holes in the brain.

Why the comparison with zombies?

Because the symptoms of the neurological disease in the animals are reminiscent of the undead. In the final stage, they are emaciated and appear weak. They lose all fear of humans, drool, and are said to become aggressive.

The disease is highly contagious and is spread through contact with bodily fluids such as feces, saliva, blood, or urine. It is currently present in 24 US states, as well as in Canada, Norway, Finland, and South Korea. Among free-living animals, 10 percent become infected; among captive animals kept in close quarters, the infection rate is 79 percent.

The disease affects the brain, spinal cord, and other nerve cells of red deer, elk, and reindeer, and is comparable to the bovine disease BSE and the sheep disease scrapie. The cause is so-called prions — abnormal proteins that attack nerve cells and are extremely resistant to common disinfection methods such as heating.

For several reasons, hobby hunters and game meat consumers in particular should be wary of the disease.

On one hand, prion diseases are highly persistent. Mad cow disease (also known as BSE), for example, can also jump to humans, where it causes Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, which is always fatal.

CWD is not a new phenomenon. The first cases were documented as far back as the late 1960s in the US state of Colorado, initially in captive populations and, from 1981 onwards, also in wild animals. From Colorado, the disease spread to Wyoming in the 1990s, and since 2000 additional areas in the Midwest and Southwest of the USA, as well as isolated regions along the US East Coast, have been affected. The states of Nebraska, Colorado, Kansas, Wisconsin, and Wyoming report particularly high numbers of cases.

Norway documented the first case in Europe in April 2016; subsequently, 11,000 wild animals were tested – and authorities found positive results in two reindeer and two moose. To contain the problem, Oslo authorized the culling of an entire reindeer herd of around 2,200 animals. In Finland, a dead moose that had contracted CWD was found in February 2018.

Hunting is also big business in the USA, reportedly funneling 15 billion dollars annually into the pockets of weapons manufacturers, outfitters, and the tourism sector of rural small towns. Around 11.5 million Americans are hobby hunters.

The question is – who still wants to eat game if, on top of the known diseases, it also puts their central nervous system at risk?

Hobby hunters in affected areas have been advised for years to have animals they have shot tested before consumption. A dedicated CWD information page has been set up for these wildlife killers.

You cannot tell by looking at a wild animal whether it is infected with CWD, even if it has been carrying the disease for months. Nor do wild animals attack people like zombies after the disease breaks out. They tend to appear disoriented and have coordination problems.

According to a report by NBC News, it is estimated that up to 15’000 hobby hunter families in the USA already consume CWD-infected meat each year. The report states that this number is increasing by up to 20 percent annually due to the spread of the disease!