Canada Deer Being Killed By "Zombie Disease", Hunters At Risk

A strange and highly communicable disease is spreading through the deer population in Canada. The Chronic Wasting Disease (CWD) is a concern in at least two of Canada's provinces - Alberta and Saskatchewan - according to health experts.

According to United States' Centres for Disease Control (CDC), CWD is a prion disease that affects deer, elk, reindeer, sika deer and moose. CWD is fatal to animals and there are no treatments or vaccines, it further said.

The infection was first detected in the United States in the 1960s and later spread to Colorado, Oklahoma, Kansas, Nebraska, Minnesota, Wisconsin, South Dakota, and Montana, according to Vice World News. It has so far been found in 26 US states. Canada's first case of CWD was detected in an elk farm in Saskatchewan in 1996 and spread to wild deer.

How dangerous is it?

According to CDC, the CWD could spread to people through eating of infected deer or elk. This makes the hunters particularly vulnerable to the disease.

They may contract the infection through improper handling of the carcass, which might lead to blood or brain matter to enter the body, or through plain consumption of the flesh.

Can humans get infected?

The prion protein that causes CWD doesn't break down and remains infectious when cooked. The CDC, however, says that there is no strong evidence till date for the occurrence of CWD in humans, and it is not known if people can get infected with CWD prions.

But the health agency has asked people to be as safe as possible and decrease the potential risk of contracting the infection by not shooting, eating or handling the meat of the deer that look sick, wearing latex of rubber gloves when dressing the animal or handling the meat and not using kitchen knives for dressing.

"Zombie disease"

Health experts say that the CWD causes the infected animal to lose control of its brain. As per the symptoms listed by the Canadian Food Inspection Agency, the animals infected with CWD exhibit excess salivation, lack of coordination, unusual behaviour, excessive urination and weight loss.

These outward symptoms have led some people to refer to CWD as "zombie disease". Animals are usually three to four years old before clinical signs appear, but signs have been seen in animals as young as 15 months or as old as 13 years. And they can transmit the infection through their urine and saliva.