Concerns about chronic wasting disease grew after a case report surfaced of two hunters who developed neurological disorders and died after eating venison from a population of deer that may have been infected with “zombie deer disease”.
The report of the two hunters who died in 2022, presented in early April at the annual meeting of the American Academy of Neurology, did not prove the transmission of chronic wasting disease (CWD) from deer to humans, according to Health Science Center at the University of Texas. in San Antonio, researchers wrote.
However, the researchers write, the case “highlights the need for further investigation into the potential risks of consuming CWD-infected deer and its implications for public health.”
No cases of CWD have been reported to date, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. But previous studies have raised concerns that CWD could “pose a risk to humans,” the CDC said, suggesting “it is important to prevent human exposures to CWD.”
Here’s what you need to know about the hunter deaths and the CDC’s response to the report.
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Of the 2022 report, the agency agreed with researchers “that there is a need for careful investigation of chronic wasting disease (CWD) as a potential risk to people’s health,” the agency said. CDC epidemiologist Ryan Maddox in a statement to USA TODAY.
But the CDC looked at the 2022 cases and considered the deaths of the two men to be “part of the normal number of CJD (Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease) cases that we see in the United States,” it said. .
The men died after developing Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (CJD), which, like CWD, is a prion disease, a class of fatal neurological disorders, which can affect humans and animals, and usually progresses rapidly and are always fatal. In prion diseases, certain proteins in the brain begin to fold abnormally, causing brain damage and other symptoms, according to the CDC.
“A history of hunting and/or eating venison does not mean someone contracted CJD that way,” Maddox said. “Many Americans hunt and even more eat game. Some will develop sporadic CJD by chance and others will not.”
What is chronic wasting disease?
Chronic wasting disease (CWD), in deer, elk and other animals, causes weight loss, lack of coordination, stumbling, listlessness, weight loss, drooling and withdrawal out of fear of people, hence the term “zombie deer disease”.
First identified in captive deer at a Colorado research center in the late 1960s, CWD appeared in wild deer in 1981 and has since been reported in free-ranging deer, elk and moose in 33 states, according to the US Geological Survey.
Scientists are concerned about CWD because mad cow disease, or bovine spongiform encephalopathy, or BSE, spread to humans in the United Kingdom in the 1990s.
“We know that prion diseases can spread from animals to humans, as we saw with (mad cow disease),” Maddox said. “Studies are underway to evaluate whether CJD could pose a risk to humans. The increase in the annual number of CJD cases in the United States may be explained by an aging population, better surveillance and better tests.”
Some aspects of the two hunters’ cases suggest classic Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (CJD), rather than a new neurological disorder caused by CWD, he said.
Prion diseases typically take many years to cause symptoms in humans. “The men died of Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease before or around the same time the disease was discovered in the area where they were hunting, leaving no time for a long incubation period,” said Maddox.
Their ages, symptoms and brain changes “were all consistent with what we normally see in classic, sporadic CJD not attributed to CWD,” he said. When variant CJD emerged as a result of “mad cow disease,” those affected were younger and had different symptoms, Maddox said.
And current studies do not show increased CJD rates among Colorado hunters. “So far the results have been reassuring,” he said. “The number of cases of CJD or other prion diseases in this population of hunters was not higher than would be expected in the general population.”
Chronic Wasting Disease: Tips for Reducing Risk When Hunting Deer and Elk
Although CWD has not spread to humans, hunters should take precautions to avoid exposure to the chronic wasting disease. Here are some tips from the CDC:
- Do not shoot, handle, or eat meat from deer or elk that appears sick or is behaving strangely. Also, do not handle or eat road-killed animals.
- Wear latex or rubber gloves when field dressing the animal or handling meat. Do not use household knives or other kitchen utensils for field dressing.
- Avoid handling the animal’s organs, especially brain or spinal cord tissue.
- Check state wildlife and public health guidelines to see if CWD testing on animals is recommended or required where you hunt.
- Strongly consider having deer or elk tested for CWD before eating the meat. If your pet tests positive for CWD, do not eat meat from that animal.
- If your deer or elk is commercially processed, consider requesting that your animal be processed individually to avoid mixing meat from multiple animals.
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