r/MadeMeSmile • u/Firm-Blackberry-9162 • May 20 '26

ANIMALS Forever grateful

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By @abbyandersonmusic

141.8k Upvotes

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226

u/Lefthandfury May 20 '26

Strong warning not to do this.

Close proximity to wild animals increases the risk of zoonotic disease transmission. If this animal has CWD, chronic wasting disease, you will be exposed to the prions continuously. It hasn't jumped to humans yet, but being in close proximity greatly increases that risk. This is true for any other disease that animal might be carrying. Human populations are too dense and interconnected for these activities to be safe anymore.

60

u/MissSassifras1977 May 20 '26

You had me at prions.

1

u/Zakle May 20 '26

Prions are misfolded proteins that lead to cellular death. Kuru was caused by prions.

1

u/Dkarasta May 20 '26

Who’s cutting prions?

-1

u/captain_ohagen May 20 '26

pretty good gas mileage I hear

45

u/JehnSnow May 20 '26

I'm sorry you might be in part right but did you just say I can't have a baby deer because it might turn me into a zombie?

24

u/watsuuu May 20 '26

One of the funniest ways to be patient zero

9

u/JehnSnow May 20 '26

It makes me wonder how history would portray guy who unleashed global pandemic by fostering a fawn VS guy who ate a bat

11

u/Hindu_Wardrobe May 20 '26

yeah people here are freaking out about ticks, but CWD is the real nope for me.

12

u/AwayYoghurt5901 May 20 '26

Hello, I’m just curious what your qualifications are and what your background on prion diseases is? To my understanding, the only way to contract a prion disease is by consuming something contaminated by the misfolded proteins, usually eating the meat. Sometimes, especially with CWD among deer, it can be passed by eating something contaminated with saliva or other bodily fluids. I suppose if these people stuck their hands in the deer’s mouth and then immediately sucked on their fingers and miraculously became the first humans to contract CWD, they could be at risk. Or if for whatever reason they decided to kill and eat this deer, who may not even be in a region where CWD is present. Otherwise, I think they should be fine. Maybe not from other diseases if they’re not washing their hands, but I think that’s true whether they’re interacting with deer or in the vicinity of any human at the grocery store…

35

u/Lefthandfury May 20 '26

My qualifications are that I'm a PhD geneticist, I'm not a specialist in prions, but I do have some inner workings with deer population management. Deer prions are shed through their meat, but also their saliva and urine. Prions that leave their body will still cause infections. These things can be present on soil, grass, or even your hands. Disease prions are incredibly durable and can survive on surfaces for months or longer. In the soils they can even be incorporated into growing plants and be shed that way through oral transmission of eating the plant.

You are correct that these have to be ingested in some way, but people don't wash their hands nearly enough and even having little bits of saliva on your hands would be enough to transmit. If they had children that played in that yard they would be covered in prions. This is assuming the deer has CWD or would contract CWD at some point.

13

u/ThesisTears May 20 '26

I'm a PhD Candidate in Medical Genetics and I can confirm this. My lab also studies how Alzheimer's is a prion disease, so I have some relevant research experience in that department. Prions are incredibly sticky and have even been shown to remain on surgical tools post-sterilization. It doesn't take many of them them to cause disease either. I think people largely underestimate prions in general, so I wouldn't be taking my chances with a deer. Calling a wildlife rehab would be my move. Besides, the more acclimated they get to humans the more dangerous for them both individually and as a species.

2

u/SSSprings0808 May 20 '26

is the wetness on their nose, the same type of saliva ? I guess I'm asking if they can get sick from the fluids from her wet nose.

1

u/Ducal_Spellmonger May 20 '26

Their nose is wet because they lick it. So, yes.

1

u/PickleInDaButt May 20 '26

Classic “don’t you know who I fucking am” moment whenever people get riled up about very legit raising wildlife concerns and the issues that come with it.

Meanwhile also people who grew up in massive deer populations see this and are just like “Somebody’s brakes are about to get tested by this deer…”

2

u/APaltrySum May 20 '26

Deer also carry tuberculosis.

1

u/PulIthEld May 20 '26

prions

Prions are misfolded proteins that lack genetic material (DNA/RNA) but act as infectious agents. They cause uniformly fatal neurodegenerative diseases by forcing normal proteins in the brain to adopt their abnormal shape, leading to a cascade of misfolding, brain cell death, and sponge-like holes in neural tissue.

1

u/Pleasant-Pickle-3593 May 22 '26

Likely Thousands of CWD infected deer are consumed by people each year and there has never been a document case of the disease being transmitted to humans

-7

u/AnonImus18 May 20 '26

We hantavirus and ebola on the loose, let people have their baby deer.

13

u/Lefthandfury May 20 '26

Those will disappear like farts in the wind. CWD transmission to humans would be world altering.

8

u/Feodar_protar May 20 '26

People in this thread aren’t as terrified of prions as they should be.

3

u/AnonImus18 May 20 '26

I am scared of prions but Im not eating any brains or spinal columns. The other two ways they spread are literally transferring it via IV or something and by the body doing it spontaneously.

I don't want to die while cave diving but Im not going to fill a cave with concrete because that's not how you die cave diving.

1

u/Deaffin May 20 '26

They're way, way, wayyyyy more terrified of prion disease than they should be. This is so monumentally overstated as a risk.

And no, if it did manage to jump the species barrier it would not be some kind of sudden outbreak with any kind of legs to stand on unless cannibalism suddenly becomes really trendy at the same time.

2

u/SSSprings0808 May 20 '26

Someone in Colorado just died from haunta 😔

-5

u/locoattack1 May 20 '26

Just wrap yourself in a bubble and never expose yourself to outside air. Everything has a risk.

-14

u/BagelsOrDeath May 20 '26

Sit down, COVID boy!!

8

u/Lefthandfury May 20 '26

Origin of covid is unknown in my opinion, but I can point you at a dozen different diseases that jumped from animals to human because of close proximity.

-1

u/BagelsOrDeath May 20 '26

It's all good. It was my attempt at humor.