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‘Don’t call it zombie deer disease’: scientists warn of ‘global crisis’ as infections spread across the US (www.theguardian.com)

submitted 1 day ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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Summary

Chronic wasting disease (CWD), an incurable and fatal prion disease affecting deer, elk, moose, and reindeer, is spreading across 36 US states and other countries.

Scientists warn of a potential human spillover crisis, with tens of thousands likely consuming infected venison. Experts criticize labeling it "zombie deer disease" as it downplays the threat.

Concerns include contamination through carcass transport and feedgrounds. Calls grow for better surveillance and prevention, but conflicting policies and resistance to reducing wildlife feedgrounds hinder efforts.

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[–] [email protected] 10 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Bacteria and viruses are not much of a threat, our immune systems have been battling them for our entire evolutionary history. Every now and then one comes along and does a whole bunch of damage, but overall we come out on top.

Mammals haven't really had to worry about fungus, we are too hot and there hasn't been a forcing factor to make fungus evolve temperature resistance, till recently. We don't have any defense against fungal infection; the temperature barrier has always kept us safe.

Global warming is forcing fungal evolution, our temperature barrier is shrinking, at some point in the not too distant future, there will be a major outbreak of a fungal disease.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (2 children)

The climate has been significantly warmer in the past than it is projected to become even in the worst-case near-future scenario. This won't be some unprecedented opportunity for fungal parasites.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 day ago

He says, full of Dunning-Kruger branded confidence, listing an event from 20 million years before apes evolved like it means jack shit.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 day ago

Whilst this may be the case, 49MYa was a long time ago. Any mammals around at the time had probably evolved to deal with fungal infections.

But as the climate cooled back to similar levels that we have had in the recent past (last 200k years) those evolved traits would have been de-selected since they are a cost with no benefit.

The problem with the current warming is that the rate is much higher than in the past, fast evolving creatures (read small, with short generation cycles) can change much more quickly to deal with the new conditions; those of us that evolve much more slowly cannot compete.