Zombie Deer - by 
brightideas (49) in nature • 1 hour ago
Mad cow disease is a disease that appeared in the United Kingdom in 1980 – 90 people ate the diseased cows and hundreds of people were infected.
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Now there are deer dying from a neurological disease in many U.S states and people are starting to wonder if this could also be a disease that can infect people.
The infected chronic disease is spread by something called (prions) but they do not move away from the animal very easily.
There is now a studies being done, as it is getting worse more than 21 states are already infected by these Reindeer and the test being done shows that 3 out of every 5 monkeys who ate the infected meat have been infected.
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This disease was first discovered in Colorado in 1967 and is also known as “Zombie deer disease”
The “prion” in the elk may still be changing and it may take some time, but the suggestion has been made that a test should be done on the meat before it is given to humans to eat.
We never know when this prion reaches its capacity to be able to affect humans.
When prions fold abnormally they can change and make the prion enter the elk or deer and if eaten by humans it can be spread.
Moreover, some studies have shown that researchers can artificially evolve the prions that cause chronic wasting disease (either in a test tube or animal models) so that the altered prion proteins can cause human proteins to misfold, Zabel said.
This suggests that if chronic-wasting-disease prions evolve in nature, they could potentially cross the species barrier, he said.
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Should we be eating deer meat? That is the question.
The CBC says it would be much better to have this meat tested before eating just to be sure that there is no problem.
There is also the school of thought, which if an animal that appears a little funny have that zombie look, do not shoot it as a hunter for food.
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These animals get this zombie look on their faces and seem not to be scared of humans as they have this neurological disease.
This is sad but it is a fact that there are hundreds of them that have been discovered.
