Zombies among us? What do we do?

No, we do not technically have zombies among us humans, but that is not to say we do not have the living dead around us. By this living dead, I am referring to Chronic wasting disease which has been shown to infect the deer population. The species of inflicted deer include: elk, mule deer, white-tailed deer and moose (Osterholm, 2019). The symptoms of the disease are gruesome to say the least. At the onset of the disease, there are no visible symptoms. The deer appear to be healthy for the duration of the disease, up until the final few months (Osterholm, 2019).

The disease has an incubation period of about 18 months, with the last 2 months showing the visible symptoms. The infected deer look emaciated due to a loss of appetite and increased urination (Osterholm, 2019). Additionally, the deer behave like zombies. That is to say that the deer exhibit: antisocial behavior, lowering of the head, blank facial expressions, and pacing in repetitive patterns. In elk, symptoms have also included excessive drooling and grinding of the teeth.

The disease is caused by a misfolded protein called a prion. The misfolding of a protein often results in catastrophic chain of events which lead to the fatality of the infected. Prions operate by replacing the natural or wildtype protein normally found in the body. From there, they cause the other proteins to misfold as well which cascades until death. Unfortunately, even after the animal dies, the prions can still be spread. We have seen such events with the breakout of mad cow disease which is also caused by a prion (Broxmeyer, 2004).  

Now that we know about the disease, the question of why should we care? Or perhaps more specifically, why should we in the physiology class care. While the disease has not been shown to be transmissible to humans, that is not to say that we are not affected. Indeed, we as a species are unlikely to ever experience these zombielike symptoms, but does that mean we as humans should not care for deer? So far, the only “treatment” is to kill the deer before it spreads this disease. This brings into question of what should we do? On one hand, the disease has shown only fatalities with no survivors. On the other hand, is there a way to cure the disease and prolong the deer’s life? The ultimate question is what ought we to do?

References:

Osterholm MT, Anderson CJ, Zabel

MD, Scheftel JM, Moore KA, Appleby BS. 2019.

Chronic wasting disease in cervids:

implications for prion transmission to humans

and other animal species. mBio 10:e01091-19.

https://doi.org/10.1128/mBio.01091-19.

Is mad cow disease caused by a bacteria?

L. Broxmeyer*

c/o Med-America Research, 148-14A 11th Avenue, Whitestpme, NY 11357, USA

Received 29 March 2004; accepted 20 April 2004

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.mehy.2004.04.013