The recent report of two hunters who developed neurological diseases after eating infected deer meat has scientists concerned that ‘zombie deer disease’ could pass to humans as mad cow disease did.
Two hunters who ate meat from deer known to have chronic wasting disease − or “zombie deer disease” − developed similar neurological conditions and died, raising concerns that it can pass from animals to humans.
Found in deer in northern Colorado and southern Wyoming in the 1990s, chronic wasting disease (CWD) has been recorded in free-ranging deer, elk and moose in at least 32 states across all parts of the continental U.S., according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Deer infected with CWD may be called “zombie deer” because the disease leads to weight loss, lack of coordination, stumbling, listlessness, weight loss, drooling, and lack of fear of people.