{"id":89177,"date":"2019-04-03T09:42:20","date_gmt":"2019-04-03T16:42:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/2019\/04\/scientists-worry-zombie-deer-disease-could-jump-to-humans"},"modified":"2019-04-03T09:42:20","modified_gmt":"2019-04-03T16:42:20","slug":"scientists-worry-zombie-deer-disease-could-jump-to-humans","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/2019\/04\/scientists-worry-zombie-deer-disease-could-jump-to-humans","title":{"rendered":"Scientists worry \u2018zombie deer\u2019 disease could jump to humans"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a class=\"aligncenter blog-photo\" href=\"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog.images\/scientists-worry-zombie-deer-disease-could-jump-to-humans2.jpg\"><\/a><\/p>\n<p>If you\u2019ve heard of \u201czombie deer,\u201d you\u2019ve heard of the horrors of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.popsci.com\/deer-chronic-wasting-disease-blood-test\">chronic wasting disease<\/a>. CWD causes infected animals to stumble through the forest, sometimes drooling and becoming aggressive towards humans they once feared. They lose weight. They\u2019re listless. The spookiest thing about it, though, isn\u2019t its resemblance to zombie-dom\u2014it\u2019s the fact that it\u2019s an incurable prion disease.<\/p>\n<p>Prions are misfolded proteins that are somehow infectious (we\u2019re still not really sure how or why) and for which we have no treatments or cures. If you were to catch one, you\u2019d basically deteriorate over the course of several months, possibly losing the ability to speak or move, and eventually you would die. Doctors wouldn\u2019t be able to do anything to save you.<\/p>\n<p>Right now, CWD appears limited to deer, moose, and elk. But University of Minnesota researchers warned local lawmakers this week that we should be taking action now to prevent the potential spread to humans. Michael Osterholm, director of the university\u2019s Center for Infectious Disease Research and Prevention, testified that \u201cIt is my best professional judgment based on my public health experience and the risk of BSE transmission to humans in the 1980s and 1990s and my extensive review and evaluation of laboratory research studies \u2026 that it is probable that human cases of CWD associated with the consumption of contaminated meat will be documented in the years ahead. It is possible that number of human cases will be substantial and will not be isolated events,\u201d <a href=\"https:\/\/www.twincities.com\/2019\/02\/07\/experts-yes-chronic-wasting-disease-in-deer-is-a-public-health-issue-for-people\/\">according to the <em>Pioneer Press<\/em><\/a>.<\/p>\n<p><!-- Link: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.popsci.com\/chronic-wasting-disease-humans-hunting?con=TrueAnthem&dom=fb&lnk=TA&src=SOC&utm_campaign&utm_content=5c9ed4c23ed3f00001722b6d&utm_medium&utm_source&linkId=65566883\">https:\/\/www.popsci.com\/chronic-wasting-disease-humans-huntin...d=65566883<\/a> --><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>If you\u2019ve heard of \u201czombie deer,\u201d you\u2019ve heard of the horrors of chronic wasting disease. CWD causes infected animals to stumble through the forest, sometimes drooling and becoming aggressive towards humans they once feared. They lose weight. They\u2019re listless. The spookiest thing about it, though, isn\u2019t its resemblance to zombie-dom\u2014it\u2019s the fact that it\u2019s an [\u2026]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":513,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11,1506,1495],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-89177","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-biotech-medical","category-food","category-health"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/89177","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/513"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=89177"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/89177\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=89177"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=89177"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=89177"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}