If you Google news search \u2018Zombie Deer\u2019 you\u2019ll find stories from a variety of media outlets including the San-Antonio Express News<\/em><\/a>, Newsweek<\/a>, Outside<\/em><\/a>, and the Associated Press<\/em><\/a>, with headlines declaring that zombie deer are spreading across America. Or, that the \u201czombie deer disease\u201d will soon be transmitted to humans. What these publications refer to as zombie deer disease is actually chronic wasting disease, a neurodegenerative prion disease that infects deer, elk, moose, and caribou.<\/p>\n Chronic wasting disease (or CWD) is caused by a rogue protein that resides in the lymph and nervous tissues of infected cervids, as Andrew McKean wrote for OL<\/a> in 2019. Those proteins, called prions, are passed on to other deer, and can remain in the soil of an infected site for years. Currently there is evidence that CWD has never been transmitted to humans, however the disease belongs to the family of transmissible spongiform encephalopathies (TSEs) that includes bovine spongiform encephalopathy (\u201cmad cow disease\u201d). Most experts as well as the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommend that humans not eat venison from CWD-infected deer.<\/p>\n Wildlife managers say that chronic wasting disease is the most important and dangerous disease threatening North American cervids.\u00a0<\/p>\n Forget about zombies for a moment. Here are some facts that you need to know about chronic wasting disease.<\/p>\n READ NEXT: Here\u2019s What Top Chronic Wasting Disease Researchers Can\u2019t Say on the Record<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n This inaccurate terminology is troubling for two reasons. First, it gives people a poor understanding of CWD. Second, the hyperbole helps spread CWD conspiracy sentiment.\u00a0<\/p>\n The main problem with the\u00a0 term \u201czombie deer\u201d is that it creates the idea that CWD-infected deer are staggering about the woods looking to attack a hiker and eat their brains. Lindsay Thomas is the chief communications officer for the National Deer Association<\/a> and the editor of their quarterly magazine which has covered CWD carefully and thoughtfully<\/a> for years, and he had this to say about the term:<\/p>\n \u201cI know the news media is just trying to get more clicks from a mainstream audience that may not otherwise care about wildlife diseases, but they are doing real damage both to the public\u2019s understanding of this issue and to the hunting community\u2019s efforts to unite against this threat.<\/em><\/p>\n Deer that are dying of CWD don\u2019t have a single thing in common with the popularized image of zombies. In the late stages of the syndrome, you\u2019re talking about an animal that can barely stand much less get aggressive. But deer in the wild, outside of captive laboratory observation, rarely reach that stage. Research shows CWD-infected deer start suffering higher mortality rates from predators, vehicles, and other diseases long before they start showing outward signs of CWD itself. So, even a hunting media outlet that shows a photo of a skin-and-bones deer as an example of a \u2018CWD deer\u2019 is misleading its readers.<\/em><\/p>\n Deer can be infected with and spread CWD to other deer for one to two years before they begin to show visible signs of infection. So, the vast majority of CWD-infected deer that the public and hunters encounter will look completely healthy and appear to behave normally.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n There is already so much misinformation and so many conspiracy theories about CWD circulating in the hunting community. The last thing we need is for major media outlets, which many folks already distrust, reaffirming CWD non-believers<\/a> by running insane headlines that no one with knowledge of the subject will take seriously. This kind of hyperbole is dumbing down the entire conversation at the very moment we need to be having a real, national discussion about how to better manage captive deer<\/a> and wild whitetails during the CWD age.<\/p>\n For example, the Daily Beast<\/em> ran this headline in 2019: \u201cBrain-Eating Zombie Deer Disease Will Likely Spread to Humans<\/a>.\u201d Any hunter from a CWD-infected area knows that this headline is total bullshit. And if that hunter already thought CWD might be a hoax, this kind of exaggerated news story only confirms their beliefs. If we never get past the point of arguing about how big of a threat CWD actually is to whitetail deer and deer hunting, we\u2019ll never move on to discussing possible solutions<\/a>\u2014like which herd harvest strategies do and don\u2019t work for limiting the spread or petitioning for federal funding to advance CWD testing.<\/p>\n It\u2019s worth noting that the term \u201czombie deer\u201d is almost always used in quotation marks in major media stories. However, I have not been able to find the original scientist or research paper that called a CWD-infected deer a \u201czombie deer.\u201d So, who are these news outlets actually quoting? For example, The Independent<\/em><\/a> wrote this as its lede in a 2019 story: \u201cScientists have warned that \u2018zombie deer\u2019 are spreading across America and there is nothing that can be done to stop them.\u201d<\/p>\n I was not able to find a single credible scientist quoted saying that directly, and I bet that you won\u2019t be able to either. So, who did<\/em> start calling CWD-infected deer \u201czombie deer\u201d? These days it seems like every news story about CWD references zombies. But going back, I found a surge of stories referencing \u201czombie deer\u201d in early spring 2019 when Michael Osterholm, director of the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy at the University of Minnesota, testified before state lawmakers about the possibility<\/em> of the disease one day spreading to humans.<\/a>\u00a0<\/p>\n However, a few weeks before those stories broke, Livescience.com published a story titled \u201cCould \u2018Zombie Deer\u2019 Disease Spread to Humans?\u201d<\/a> on January 23, 2018. That story links to a Livescience.com opinion piece from 2013 which reads \u201cstate wildlife managers are deeply concerned that these zombie deer will infect free-roaming deer\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n This op-ed was written by Wayne Pacelle, the former President and CEO of the Humane Society of the United States, one of the most powerful anti-hunting organizations in the country. Pacelle eventually resigned from the HSUS amid sexual harassment allegations, but when this opinion piece was published in 2013, he was still the face of the organization.<\/p>\n In 2012 there was a Science Daily report<\/a> that referenced \u201czombie protein.\u201d Beyond that, I can\u2019t find an article earlier than this from a major news source that references \u201czombie deer.\u201d Patrick Durkin<\/a>, who has been diligently reporting on CWD for 20 years, doesn\u2019t recall seeing the term being used in chronic wasting disease news stories before 2019. So, it\u2019s at least possible that the term \u201czombie deer\u201d was partly popularized by disgraced anti-hunting zealot Wayne Pacelle.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\nChronic Wasting Disease Facts<\/h2>\n
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Why the Term \u201cZombie Deer\u201d Is Problematic<\/h2>\n
It\u2019s an Inaccurate Description of CWD<\/h3>\n
It Fuels CWD Conspiracy Talk<\/h3>\n
Where Did Zombie Deer Come From?\u00a0<\/h2>\n
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