"Zombie deer apocalypse" sounds like a great elevator pitch for a 1980s comedy-horror film, like a Gremlins or a Tremors, kind of like Black Sheep was for New Zealand's sheep.
The Zombie Apocalypse Has Started (No Joke)
- Thread starter TXCyclones
- Start date
Here's what I found at the CDC website:
Prion diseases or transmissible spongiform encephalopathies (TSEs) are a family of rare progressive neurodegenerative disorders that affect both humans and animals. They are distinguished by long incubation periods, characteristic spongiform changes associated with neuronal loss, and a failure to induce inflammatory response.
The causative agents of TSEs are believed to be prions. The term “prions” refers to abnormal, pathogenic agents that are transmissible and are able to induce abnormal folding of specific normal cellular proteins called prion proteins that are found most abundantly in the brain. The functions of these normal prion proteins are still not completely understood. The abnormal folding of the prion proteins leads to brain damage and the characteristic signs and symptoms of the disease. Prion diseases are usually rapidly progressive and always fatal.
(The emphasis is mine.)
Scrapie in sheep is another of this category.
But yeah, CWD has been around for at least 15 years, this is nothing new.
But yeah, CWD has been around for at least 15 years, this is nothing new.
I searched after I read his post. Could not find anything about a vaccine being developed. Matter of fact, didn't find anything about anyone discovering what causes prions to fold abnormally. I'm really curious to see this study @jay moe was talking about.
Interesting. And odd that he referenced "protection of the 2nd A" within the first couple of minutes.
I looked up Bastion and read portions of his journal paper from Nov 2017 but was not able to locate the peer reviews. From what I saw when looking for him, he is pretty lonely in his theories. He seems extremely optimistic, promising a number of things over the next 5-10 years. As a side note, I'm somewhat leery of people who guarantee multiple successful scientific results within specific time frames.
Listening to other parts of the extended half-hour press conference (this guy was one of about 5-6 speakers), the vaccine they are talking about is to be used on wild deer/elk populations. Ummmm...good luck with that? However, they seem to have developed a field test that will test the hunter's harvest for presence of the disease, and that's a good thing.
This press conference seems aimed at funding Bastion's research (from LSU) and expanding it in Pennsylvania.
Here's the complete press conference:
and the website of the group sponsoring the press conference:
http://www.unifiedsportsmenpa.org/
The website gives a pretty good idea of the amount of slant in the press conference.
and the website of the group sponsoring the press conference:
http://www.unifiedsportsmenpa.org/
The website gives a pretty good idea of the amount of slant in the press conference.
A lot of strangely angry posts in this thread that I wasn’t really expecting. Settle down, dudes, no one is telling you that you can’t still hunt.
CWD is not caused by bacteria.
https://nationaldeeralliance.com/ed...cd9cn-C7y43IBlpf6yCYQIAiFZ6U562TpSXlErVjykAvg
https://nationaldeeralliance.com/ed...cd9cn-C7y43IBlpf6yCYQIAiFZ6U562TpSXlErVjykAvg
My first research paper from 2003 discussed prion diseases, and similarities to diseases like Alzheimer's (my work was done with a short section of amyloid beta, but the initial paper that sparked the idea was work with a prion protein in mouse models).
Edit: Link to Abstract
These proteins are incredibly resilient, which is weird as most proteins are sensitive to changes in pH, salt, temperature, etc. The largely beta sheet structure in Prions is responsible for the plaque formation, although the wild type is largely alpha helical and globular. Stanley Pruisner earned a Nobel Prize (late 90s) for his work on Prions starting from the late 70s.
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