Zombie Deer Found In Yellowstone As Epidemic Spreads: ‘Slow-Moving Disaster’ With ‘Huge Ecological Implications’
A deer corpse found in Yellowstone National Park is the area’s first discovered case of Chronic Wasting Disease (CWD), which is sometimes called “zombie deer” disease, and the high profile locale is drawing needed national attention to a nationwide epidemic, scientists say.
It is a highly contagious, always fatal disease affecting deer, elk, moose, and yes, even reindeer that, among other symptoms, has neurological effects that include stumbling, lethargy, and a “blank stare” affect that earned it the “zombie” characterization.
CWD has been reported in animal populations across the country and has been featured on local news reports in Texas, Kentucky, Tennessee, New York, and other states for months. But with the discovery in Yellowstone, veterinarian and former chief of animal health for the Fish & Wildlife Service Dr. Thomas Roffe told The Guardian this month, CWD will be “on the radar of widespread attention in ways it wasn’t before – and that’s, ironically, a good thing.”
“It’s a disease that has huge ecological implications,” he said. A problem on which epidemiologist Dr. Michael Osterholm elaborated.
The disease is a “slow-moving disaster”, according to Dr Michael Osterholm, an epidemiologist who studied the outbreak of bovine spongiform encephalopathy, or “mad cow disease” – a related prion condition – in the UK, and is director of the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy at the University of Minnesota.
Dr Cory Anderson recently earned his doctorate studying with Osterholm, focusing on pathways of CWD transmission. “We’re dealing with a disease that is invariably fatal, incurable and highly contagious. Baked into the worry is that we don’t have an effective easy way to eradicate it, neither from the animals it infects nor the environment it contaminates.”
Once an environment is infected, the pathogen is extremely hard to eradicate. It can persist for years in dirt or on surfaces, and scientists report it is resistant to disinfectants, formaldehyde, radiation and incineration at 600C (1,100F).
Fox News reported Saturday that “some” scientists worry about transmission to humans:
Symptoms can take up to a year to develop and some have dubbed it the “zombie deer disease” since it changes in the hosts’ brains and nervous systems, leaving animals drooling, lethargic, emaciated, stumbling and with a telltale “blank stare,” according to The Guardian. It is fatal, with no known treatments or vaccines.
And now scientists are sounding the alarm that it could infect humans, although no known case has ever been recorded.
Epidemiologists say the absence of a “spillover” case yet does not mean it will not happen. CWD is one of a cluster of fatal neurological disorders that includes Bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE), commonly referred to as “mad cow disease.”
“The BSE outbreak in Britain provided an example of how, overnight, things can get crazy when a spillover event happens from, say, livestock to people,” Dr. Cory Anderson told The Guardian. Anderson is a program co-director at the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy (CIDRAP).
“We’re talking about the potential of something similar occurring. No one is saying that it’s definitely going to happen, but it’s important for people to be prepared,” Anderson added.
He added that what’s also worrying is that there is no known way to effectively and easily eradicate it, “neither from the animals it infects nor the environment it contaminates.”
Still, scientists emphasize that the chances of jumping species are remote or theoretical at this point.
Fox News adds that “Yellowstone staff have increased collaboration and information sharing with the Wyoming Game and Fish Department and other state agencies to identify areas within Yellowstone with increased risk for CWD. Monitoring for the presence of CWD in deer, elk and moose in the park has also been ramped up as has testing from carcasses.”
Let us hope they keep their eye on reindeer, too, against any holidalogical implications.
