• vexikron@lemmy.zip
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    1 year ago

    If a mad-cow-like disease jumped the barrier to humans and began spreading through Americans, the main problem in eradicating it would be that basically no one would be able to tell the difference from the average ‘Enthusiastic’ Republican Voter and someone whose brain is melting due to an actual pathogen.

        • Mycatiskai@lemmy.ca
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          1 year ago

          The problem is that the brain is the part you want to splatter all over the Italian marble floors of their mansions.

          New plan live butchering so that the brain and spine is still intact and no need to worry about Mad Bougie disease.

      • PrinceWith999Enemies@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        We’re actually not sure about that. Some prions do spread by eating the meat of infected animals, but I think we can be temper 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.

    • ComradeSharkfucker@lemmy.ml
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      1 year ago

      I don’t think enough people are eating venison regularly for a this prion to be a serious threat even if it manages to transmit to humans

      • vexikron@lemmy.zip
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        1 year ago

        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

      • wildginger@lemmy.myserv.one
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        1 year ago

        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.

      • Wahots@pawb.social
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        1 year ago

        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.