Prion Disease Warning: Alarming ‘Spillover’ to Humans Imminent!

United States: The CIDRAP, or the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy at the University of Minnesota, published a comprehensive, accurate reference to tackle better, particularly the crossover of chronic wasting disease (CWD) from cervids such as deers to humans or other cattle.

More about the news

The review titled “Chronic Wasting Disease Spillover Preparedness and Response: Charting an Uncertain Future” identified disparities in spillover readiness and offered suggestions that should support public and animal health agencies in assessing the likelihood of a species leap and effecting timely and adequate response.

This effort is the first of its kind and extends prior consensus reports and recent reports from the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine by focusing on possibilities for spillover and avoiding the constellation of the entailed health and economic outcomes.

About CWD

CWD of cervids, including white-tailed deer, elk, and moose, results from prions, which are infectious proteins that stimulate the misfolding of normal proteins in the central nervous system (CNS).

CWD prions are released into the environment by infected animals, probably via bodily fluids, and hence transmission to other cervid species occurs either through direct contact or indirectly through contaminated soil, water, and forages.

A CIDRAP report aimed at improving surveillance, research, and response to possible chronic wasting disease spillover from cervids offers recommendations to help public and animal health agencies recognize and address a species jump. https://t.co/37fC3iNT4T

— Global Health NOW (@ghn_news) January 9, 2025

First discovered in 1967 near Rifle, USA’s Colorado, CWD has since been reported in 35 US States, Canada, and in countries including Finland, Norway, South Korea, and Sweden.

Though CIDRAP produces CIDRAP News for its readers, its research and news staff are separate from each other.

Preparedness efforts

Despite the absence of human CWD cases, rising disease prevalence in cervids increases the chances of cross-transmission to humans, other wildlife species, and domestic animals.

The reports suggest, “Emerging prion strains with a greater propensity for cross-species transmission could heighten these concerns,” cidrap.umn.edu reported.

“In addition to human health risks, CWD spillover could have far-reaching effects on the food supply, economy, global trade, and agriculture,” it added.

The current response to CWD is hampered by highly variable disease surveillance across states and insufficient resources that would be woefully inadequate in the event of a spillover.

Currently, there is no vaccine or cure for the relentlessly progressive and fatal neurological disease, and nonetheless, disease surveillance is irregular at best in many areas, and funding and resources are severely lacking.

Chronic Wasting Disease Spillover Preparedness and Response: Charting an Uncertain Future. CWD Report 2025 | CIDRAP https://t.co/fNCPk8NyyU

— Global Health Observ (@GlobalPHObserv) January 8, 2025

According to Michael T. Osterholm, PhD, MPH, CIDRAP director, “Since we began working on this report in 2023, concerns about a CWD prion spillover from cervids to other animal species and humans have only continued to grow in importance, and we’re simply not prepared should a species jump occur.”

Five working groups were assembled from 67 US and international human health, cervid and production animal health, prion biology and disease diagnostics, carcass and contaminated item disposal, and wildlife health and conservation experts to contribute to the development of the report.

Funding to support this work was provided by the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources under contract.

Furthermore, as Russ Mason, PhD, a nationally recognized expert in wildlife conservation who retired from the Michigan Department of Natural Resources and who co-chairs the CIDRAP CWD Contingency Project’s wildlife working group, stated, “This is the first time in my experience that a multidisciplinary and truly One Health approach has been taken towards this disease, and the first time we’ve begun to consider ‘the day after’—what wildlife managers, agricultural experts, and human health professionals would be up against if spillover occurred.”