U.S.

"Zombie" Apocalypse..?

Editor Josie Chaffin

Arkansas, Colorado, Illinois, Iowa, Kansas, Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, New Mexico, New York, North Dakota, Pennsylvania, South Dakota,Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Virginia, West Virginia, Wisconsin and Wyoming.

All of the above states have been infected as of January of this year. Quietly, the ‘Zombie’ apocalypse could be occurring… because of deer?

Variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease is a form of human bovine spongiform encephalopathy, BSE, or Mad Cow Disease. BSE slowly destroys the central nervous system and brain of affected cattle, making this disease fatal.

While it’s claimed that people cannot get Mad Cow Disease, vCJD is said to come from the ingestion of contaminated meat products. vCJD is also a fatal disease, often killing the host within 13 months of contraction. The USDA has all spinal cord tissue and brain matter removed from possibly affected cattle, and in doing this, they believe that this protects the United States from the contraction of vCJD.

While they have covered any ways of contaminated beef and vCJD from livestock finding its way into the stomachs of Americans, they never expected the outbreak that has occurred within the last few months.

Chronic Wasting Disease - a variant of the ‘Zombie Deer Disease’- is in the same family as vCJD, the human version of Mad Cow Disease, and, you guessed it, it affects deer, among other cervid family members.

CWD is spread through contact with any contaminated thing: water, food, excretion, tissues, saliva, etc. Of course, there have been multiple warnings and regulations regarding this disease, with the CDC telling hunters to “...test deer before eating meat in affected areas… [and that] If a deer looks sick or acts strangely, hunters should not shoot or handle it or eat its meat.”

Infected deer have symptoms like “...drastic weight loss, lack of coordination, listlessness, drooling, excessive thirst or urination, drooping ears, lack of fear of people and aggression,” states USA Today on their website.

However, knowing that a lot of people will not listen to these warnings, punishable laws and regulations have been put into effect. Despite this, “About 7,000 to 15,000 animals infected with CWD are eaten each year, and that number could rise by 20 percent annually,” states the Alliance for Public Wildlife.

Now, the question you’ve been waiting for: is it possible that humans will be able to contract a human-infecting variant of CWD in the coming years, creating a picturesque “zombie apocalypse”? Honestly, it’s a no. While the disease would cause lack of coordination, and even later dementia, it wouldn’t cause a hunger for other people. It would also kill all those contaminated in just over a year. It would be more of an outbreak than of an apocalypse. While this prion disease is contained to North American cervids, the best way to spread a disease like this would be eating the contaminated meat… The more people do it the more susceptible we will be to this fatal disease. “It is probable that human cases of Chronic Wasting Disease associated with consumption with contaminated meat will be documented in the years ahead… [and]... the number of human cases will be substantial, and will not be isolated events,” states Michael Osterholm, Minnesota University’s CDC Research and Policy director.