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this post was submitted on 22 Dec 2023
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This is literally why we have apex predators such as wolves. They help clamp down on the old and the sick so that prions (mad cow disease) does not spread to other species or humans. It cannot infect wolves.
When you kill off all the apex predators, like when Montana governor Greg Gianforte authorized the massacre of 100 wolves, you see explosions of extremely dangerous diseases and land degradation as deer damage tree roots, gardens, meadows, streams, and farms.
Not only that, but killing members of wolf packs causes their families to fall apart and everyone to scatter. That means wolves alone. Which cannot hunt pack animals which require coordination. So then they go after the easiest meal: dumbass farm animals who have zero survival instincts and whose ranchers no longer employ people to look after the herds in great enough numbers like the olden days. The cycle then perpetuates, as mad-cow contaminated soils spread and spread....
Can't infect wolves? I'm no expert here but I don't feel like a vertebrate mammal with a brain could be completely immune to prions. Do you have any more information on that claim?
It's in the OP article. They haven't found any infections yet, and it doesn't appear to affect them. Apex predators have, prior to human intervention, always hunted the old, the young, and the sick. Mother nature appears to have found a way around apex predators all dying from disease to balance the environment.
Afaik it's because they naturally die before the disease becomes crippling. Or it becomes crippling around or after the normal lifespan of the animal. It doesn't mean they aren't affected, it means it doesn't affect them before they would normally die...
Please don't anthropomorphize "mother nature". Mother nature doesn't think, or make decisions, it is a natural progression of life and death... There is a process and a cycle to much of it, hand waving "mother nature finds a way" ignores and dismisses the reality of it, and excludes the science that helps us understand how our world actually works.
I believe canines were found to be resistant to prion diseases, as they evolved to eat all manner of sick, dying and dead animals. Likely something to do with digestion, gut barrier or blood-brain barrier. Canines are pretty unique in their ability to eat almost anything that was once alive without getting sick.
CWD is a very fast acting disease compared to most prison diseases, and should easily become visible during the lifespan of a dog or wolf.
Scavengers like Hyenas and Vultures too. Vultures even have some strange adaptations to take care of their feet when feasting on scavenged carcasses. Their GI tracts are wild.
And opossums
Those things are fucking indestructible