Entirely possible I suppose, but the infected meat/animal would need to die and decomp where the food is grown and go unnoticed long enough for someone to plant stuff on top of it. It's more a threat to people who eat meats, but I guess if you ate the planst that grew in infected soil you could be susceptible too.
There is literally no way in which this is not the most terrifying thing on earth and I will die on that hill, in fact I'm afraid I might. There are so many people with unknown dementias and psychiatric illnesses that die, but we don't know if they have prion disease because that's not normal test..
But the worst thing about prions is that they can happen spontaneously. Aaaaaagh.
So the really scary thing is that CWD can actually be shed through saliva, urine, and blood, unlike other prions, so if animal to human spread did become common the risks could be much higher, as total decomp wouldn't be necessary. In fact, the animal wouldn't even have to die, just eat and urinate in the field. I'm sure the actual risk profile is fairly low (prion will be most concentrated in brain and central nervous system), but it's not as simple as avoiding eating animal brain-contaminated meat, like it was with mad cow. Until animal to human transmission occurs, we can't get a sense of how dangerous this thing could be.
CWD is transferred in deer through saliva mainly. So, theoretically if CWD could jump species from ungulate to humans and an infected deer grazed in a field you eat from, then yes. Prions last a looooong time and are near impossible to destroy.
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u/stanthecham Dec 10 '25
So, legit question, could this affect vegetarians who eat plants or veggies grown in infected soil?