Jakarta –
For years, chronic wasting disease (CWD), caused by abnormal, infectious pathogenic agents called prions, has been quietly spreading across North America. Experts say the disease that causes deer to become like zombies can be transmitted to humans.
Concerns were especially voiced by hunters after seeing deer behaving strangely. Prions cause changes in the brain and nervous system of their host, making the animal drooling, lethargic, emaciated, stumbling frequently and with a blank stare. That’s why CWD is called zombie deer disease.
CWD spreads through the cervid family, including deer, moose, caribou, and reindeer. This disease is fatal, and so far there is no known treatment or vaccine.
“The discovery in Yellowstone, whose ecosystem supports the largest and most diverse wild mammals in the continental US, is an important warning to society,” said Dr Thomas Roffe, veterinarian and former chief of animal health at the Fish & Wildlife Service, a US federal agency, quoted from The Guardian.
“This case puts CWD under widespread attention in an unprecedented way. CWD is a disease that has enormous ecological implications,” he continued.
Roffe has predicted CWD will reach Yellowstone for decades, and warned that the federal government and the state of Wyoming need to take aggressive action to help slow its spread.
These warnings were largely ignored. Now, the consequences will be visible for the millions of people who visit the national park every year.
This area is a vast laboratory for observing what happens when CWD infiltrates an ecosystem with its full native biodiversity. Hundreds of thousands of elk traverse Yellowstone, supporting populations of grizzly bears, wolves, cougars, coyotes and other scavengers.
“This disease is a slow-moving disaster,” said Dr Michael Osterholm, an epidemiologist who has studied outbreaks of bovine spongiform encephalopathy, or mad cow disease.
“We are facing a disease that is always fatal, incurable and highly contagious. What is worrying is that we do not have an effective and easy way to eradicate this disease, either from infected animals or from a contaminated environment,” he said.
Once the environment is infected, the pathogen is very difficult to eradicate and can survive for years in soil or surfaces. Scientists report that this pathogen is resistant to disinfectants, formaldehyde, radiation and burning at temperatures of 600 degrees Celsius.
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(rns/rns)
2023-12-29 15:37:09
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