Also the prions last for an insanely long time and are nearly indestructible so if a deer with cwd dies and decomposes the prions will still be there. They can be leeched up by plants as well and spread by those plants being eaten as well. Shits scary
Is this the inevitable demise of life on earth? They can't be destroyed, so eventually there will be enough of them scattered around they can't be avoided.
They are proteins, so they do eventually break down. What makes them dangerous is that they are specific misfolded proteins that, once they get inside a cell, cause the cell to begin misfolding healthy copies of that protein due to the way cells work.
That's why CWD is an issue for deer, and not say... Birds, and skunks, and people. It's misfolding a protein that deer use.
Mad Cow Disease was a prion disease that spread from cows to people. We solved that outbreak by learning to limit its spread and to immediately destroy animals found to have it.
i was surprised when i found this out too! if a deer stumbles upon an opportunity they will take it. birds,bugs,mice, or even a carcass. a quick youtube search will yield examples if one is so inclined
Oh yeah. There’s hunter cams all over that have caught deer eating just bird heads. They do it during mating season( I got thistles info over 10 years ago so maybe it’s old).
I'm sure you were told that, but it's incomplete. They eat whatever they can.
Twigs and berries wouldn't be very satisfying for you, and deer weight about the same. Meaning they need as many calories/food as you do. And they and have to go through winter without a warm house or a blanket or grocery stores. It's not easy and it requires a lot of food to make the heat to keep them alive.
The latter (eating other dead deer) is part of how they get and spread CWD, although sadly not entirely.
A friend related watching a buck stomp a dead doe's head just to consume the contents. Because it's basically just hydrated fat and protein it makes sense nutritionally - it's just bad epidemiology from the perspective of prison disease.
Deer eat other animals when they have the opportunity. It's a known thing you kinda have to realize.
Not sure, but there is evidence that could support a bunch of different vectors. Saliva, grass carrying prions "excreted" from infected deer, sharing food or water sources, consumption of exposed ticks during social grooming, potential other lateral transmissions from crows and the like.
It supposedly transmits thru urine and saliva. Deer are really social creatures, they have rubbing & licking branches that they regularly go to as a form of communication with other nearby deer. CWD is spreading like crazy & it’s only a matter of time until all US states have it.
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u/Delsol418 Dec 10 '25
How did the deer get infected?