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The more we learn, the better it will be for all species. We'll figure it out eventually... or die out

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.

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.

What a fuckin left turn from science to comedic genius Bravo!

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.

Deer arent eating venison regularly enough to explain the rate of its spread among deer.

Its moving through them someplace else. Which means if it jumps to us, its moving through us someplace else too. And we dont actually know for sure how its moving through them.

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.