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‘Zombie deer disease’ epidemic spreads in Yellowstone as scientists raise fears it may jump to humans (www.theguardian.com)

submitted 10 months ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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[–] [email protected] 1 points 10 months ago (3 children)

This is literally why we have apex predators such as wolves. They help clamp down on the old and the sick so that prions (mad cow disease) does not spread to other species or humans. It cannot infect wolves.

When you kill off all the apex predators, like when Montana governor Greg Gianforte authorized the massacre of 100 wolves, you see explosions of extremely dangerous diseases and land degradation as deer damage tree roots, gardens, meadows, streams, and farms.

Not only that, but killing members of wolf packs causes their families to fall apart and everyone to scatter. That means wolves alone. Which cannot hunt pack animals which require coordination. So then they go after the easiest meal: dumbass farm animals who have zero survival instincts and whose ranchers no longer employ people to look after the herds in great enough numbers like the olden days. The cycle then perpetuates, as mad-cow contaminated soils spread and spread....

[–] [email protected] 0 points 10 months ago (1 children)

Can't.... Infect.... Wolves?

You do know that prions aren't living things right? They don't "infect", they are a physical change to a compound (protein) that spreads to other similar compounds it touches. It's not a virus, or a bacteria.

Unless wolves lack the same proteins that deer also have? Usually this is a mammal thing, not a species thing.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 10 months ago

I think the meaning of the word in context was clear enough.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 10 months ago (1 children)

Can't infect wolves? I'm no expert here but I don't feel like a vertebrate mammal with a brain could be completely immune to prions. Do you have any more information on that claim?

[–] [email protected] 1 points 10 months ago (1 children)

It's in the OP article. They haven't found any infections yet, and it doesn't appear to affect them. Apex predators have, prior to human intervention, always hunted the old, the young, and the sick. Mother nature appears to have found a way around apex predators all dying from disease to balance the environment.

[–] [email protected] -1 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago) (1 children)

Afaik it's because they naturally die before the disease becomes crippling. Or it becomes crippling around or after the normal lifespan of the animal. It doesn't mean they aren't affected, it means it doesn't affect them before they would normally die...

Please don't anthropomorphize "mother nature". Mother nature doesn't think, or make decisions, it is a natural progression of life and death... There is a process and a cycle to much of it, hand waving "mother nature finds a way" ignores and dismisses the reality of it, and excludes the science that helps us understand how our world actually works.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 10 months ago (1 children)

I believe canines were found to be resistant to prion diseases, as they evolved to eat all manner of sick, dying and dead animals. Likely something to do with digestion, gut barrier or blood-brain barrier. Canines are pretty unique in their ability to eat almost anything that was once alive without getting sick.

CWD is a very fast acting disease compared to most prison diseases, and should easily become visible during the lifespan of a dog or wolf.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 10 months ago

Scavengers like Hyenas and Vultures too. Vultures even have some strange adaptations to take care of their feet when feasting on scavenged carcasses. Their GI tracts are wild.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 10 months ago (1 children)

Damn.... It's almost like we should leave mother nature the fuck alone

[–] [email protected] 0 points 10 months ago (1 children)

The more we learn, the better it will be for all species. We'll figure it out eventually... or die out

[–] [email protected] 1 points 10 months ago (1 children)

Die out. Look at the weather patterns. We done fucked up.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 10 months ago (1 children)

Could be! I've spent the last 3 or so years with little to do but think, read, argue and watch youtube. I tend to watch mostly educational content, ranging from the big ones ("nile red", "veritasium", nutshell I can't spell, "world science festival") to lesser known ones ("sci-show", "fall of civilizations", "economics explained", "donna" and a bunch of others). Robert Sapolsky is amazing, btw, look him up if you don't already know who he is. But anyway, most recently I learned about the last 5 mass extinctions in a video by "paleo analysis"

Anyway...

I think many people will die in the upcoming climate crisis (and are already dying) but I don't think humanity itself will completely die out. I mean, we are not the pinnacle of evolution that some people would like to think, and we're still changing and likely will continue to do so as our environment changes. But die out completely? Prrrrrobably not. As a species we're highly adaptive (even though some idiots in power hold us back) and I think that at least enough of us will survive to continue the species.

Maybe not, but I think we have a shot that's no more unlikely than anything else that's happened so far

[–] [email protected] 1 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago)

I wouldn't call economics explained or sci-show "lesser-known", they're some of the most popular "educational" youtubers out there now... (although a lot of the times i would find it more accurate to call economics explained videos opinion pieces based on faulty claims/sources rather than educational videos)

[–] [email protected] 0 points 10 months ago (1 children)

It's just a matter of time before it does jump the species barrier to humans. We know from other such cases how disease spreads from butchered animals to human beings, from bats or infected cattle. Many pathogens can exist for years outside the contaminated source, and even exist in our bodies for years before deciding to become active. Many of us carry viruses than will trigger years down the road, and we don't know it yet.

So it's just really a matter of time before this happens. One thing we're good at as a species is, finding ways to make ourselves sick.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 10 months ago (1 children)

No, it's not just "a matter of time". While there are loads of pathogens that jumped to humans they were originally incompatible with, there are.myriads more that didn't and likely never will. The jump to humans is not a given.

[–] [email protected] -1 points 10 months ago (1 children)

Given infinite time, infinite possibilities present.

Quite literally, it IS only a matter of time, unless you are really good at standing in the corner with a bag over your head saying "nuh uh. Things that I dont like and that I am afraid of will never happen," in which case it still is only a matter of time, you are just ignorant and argumentative.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 10 months ago (1 children)

By this logic because there is infinite time and infinite possibilities, we could develop a cure or a virus that kills this prion and avert this crisis. We could also not and just die. Then there is a possibility that none of this exists and this is a simulation and the developers haven't added this as a feature yet.

[–] [email protected] -1 points 10 months ago (1 children)

Yup. Precisely.

My main point is that, in general, it is better to prepare for the more problematic eventualities than to go "nuh uh, that isn't going to happen. Everything is going to be fine. Don't touch my cheese."

[–] [email protected] 0 points 10 months ago (1 children)

That is not the debated point. The point is that winning the lottery is just as much not a question of time.

[–] [email protected] -1 points 10 months ago

I feel like you are missing the point.

People win the lottery every day.

There are far more CWD prions than lottery players, and it would only take one of those prions to mutate into a form that could infect humans.

Again, I will reiterate, putting on a blindfold, putting your fingers in your ears and going "it won't happen, lalala!" is a pretty dumb way to approach it.

We just saw the masses do it with Covid.

We had a novel disease, we just needed to behave for a couple months, the sweeping majority did, but the remainder of fuck-nuts out there went "it's not a problem, lalala!" and now we have endemic covid, sweeping segments of the population struggling with long covid, infection rates are going through the roof again, and now new even more severe consequences like epilepsy are showing up in children post infection.

2 of the rules of life. 1) Microorganisms will mutate. 2) People will be aggressively ignorant and will make sure the mutated microorganism will do as much damage as possible. Because they certainly cant miss that Blink 182 reunion tour...