Today I learned about Chronic Wasting Disease (CWD) in deer. It is also known as zombie deer disease.
Basically a protein folds itself into the wrong shape and in this position it influences other proteins to also fold the same way. These are called prions and can be transmitted through touch.
Even in death the prions get absorbed in the ground and transferred into the vegetation which deer eat, causing them to get the disease.
There have been some suggestions that it may even affect humans in some way, like mad cow disease does. No definitive proof currently exists showing a link to human transmission.
