In the United States, chronic wasting disease has been spreading in forests for several years.
Although no contamination has been observed in humans, the evolution of the disease is being closely scrutinized.
A recent study aims to be reassuring about this risk.
There “zombie deer disease” is it transmissible to humans? This is the question that has been alerting scientists for years, as the latter continues to gain ground in the United States, and spreads more widely in North America. As a reminder, it was a first case detected in Yellowstone Park in the United States at the end of December which reignited concern around this condition. According to an article published in The Conversation in February, mentioning several reports, between 7,000 and 15,000 infected animals are in fact consumed by humans each year.
In this context, although no contamination has yet been observed in humans, the evolution of the disease is being closely scrutinized. If a 2022 study concluded that “CDD should be considered a real risk to public health”, a new study published this June by the National Institutes of Healtha United States government institution that deals with medical and biomedical research, wants to be more reassuring.
To conclude that there was a lower risk of transmission to humans, researchers exposed human brain cells to “infectious agents” called prions damaged by the disease for 180 days. Verdict: no propagation was observed. “Overall, the failure of CWD diffusion in brain organoids supports the existence of a strong species barrier to transmission of CWD prions to humans,” conclude the scientists, who estimate that“It is extremely unlikely that humans will contract prion disease due to inadvertent consumption of CWD-infected cervid meat.” In other words, transmission in humans would be “either impossible or extremely rare”, comments Sylvain Larrat, veterinarian specializing in wildlife with our colleagues at West France.
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“Zombie deer” disease: why its spread worries specialists
As a reminder, chronic wasting disease is a degenerative disease that attacks the central nervous system of infected animals and causes “a myriad of symptoms such as lethargy, loss of balance, drooling and a blank stare”, detailed this winter The Conversation. Like bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE), better known as “mad cow disease”, it is caused by a “prion”. “CWD of cervids damages parts of the brain and usually causes a progressive decline in body condition, changes in behavior, excessive salivation, and ultimately death,” explained an article from the New York State Department of Health dating from 2011. Hence the nickname given to the disease which generates a staggering gait and a very characteristic “empty” look in infected animals.
