Canada investigating a cluster of 42 cases of a mad cow-like brain disease

[douglas_stuart]

I can’t be a blood donor thanks to Mad Cow fear, now this.
Boo

[David_Guilbeaul]

@docosc

deer have become carnivorous when no one was looking.

deer and cattle will eat rodents, birds, and eggs though not in large quantities; insects on the grass if pastured.
EDIT: I see someone has already remarked that deer may eat birds…I’ve personally witnessed deer eating mice. Another thing I wonder about is what they ingest when cleaning ticks off their skin; with global warming some areas deer and moose have a very heavy burden of parasites. In the past, two weeks of - 20 weather would kill them, now that kind of weather is pretty rare.

[Jeroen_Metselaa]

@David_Guilbeaul

deer and cattle will eat rodents, birds, and eggs

Indeed. Almost all animals are opportunistic scavengers up to a point. Animal fat and proteins are too precious to waste.

[nick_warr]

Most of the prion buildup comes from the fact that these misfolded proteins can happen anywhere in the body, and are often passed in waste products, so just grazing the same land can cause things like Scrappie, and now with massive overpopulation in deer and other animals, there’s the waste factor, but also the fact that prions do not decompose along with dead bodies so they can get eaten while grazing. I’m not sure on whether they can be absorbed by plants, but bioaccumulation is a thing… so maybe?

[IronEdithKidd]

::golfclap::

Well done, neighbor to my north (unless you’re in Windsor, then you’re east and south - borders are weird when they’re made of a river).

[anothernewbbaccount]

@docosc

unless deer have become carnivorous when no one was looking

Sorry - another

@docosc

bit of info I should have known

See the following:

In a Never-Before Seen Behavior, Deer Spotted Gnawing Human Flesh

When Herbivores Attack! Plant-Eaters’ Secret Meat Snacks.

Field Cameras Catch Deer Eating Birds—Wait, Why Do Deer Eat Birds?

ETA I see that @moortaktheundea and @David_Guilbeaul sort of beat me to it, but you might find the links of interest.

[d_r]

@Papasan

Whoa, 42 cases is alarming

Makes one wonder if mice are involved somehow.

[fuzzyfungus]

@docosc

unless deer have become carnivorous when no one was looking

In this case people were looking; we can only assume that they are usually sneakier.

[David_Guilbeaul]

@d_r

Makes one wonder if mice are involved somehow.

mice in the field are surprisingly easy to catch…one of my basset hounds used to step on them all the time ( accidently ? I think, it always seemed to surprise him and he never touched them with his mouth ) and they will die from fright as well. Don’t really understand how that behaviour is beneficial, maybe it’s the older no longer fertile one’s distracting from the others, or male mice ? I’ve seen it happen though

[anothernewbbaccount]

@David_Guilbeaul

and they will die from fright as well.

You are just part of their research programme. (As @d_r was almost certainly alluding to.)

[David_Guilbeaul]

@anothernewbbaccount

You are just part of their research programme . (As @d_r was almost certainly alluding to.)

completely forgot about that…it was a long time ago for me

[Patrick97785137]

It’s OK, neighbor. We’ll just have some Minnesota norwegians send up north a couple of tons of loo-tah-fisk.

[anothernewbbaccount]

It was a long time ago for us all!

[David_Guilbeaul]

Ha, there are those who didn’t read it around 1980, though. I was a bigger fan of Dirk Gently than “Hitch Hiker’s…” but when he died so young I just couldn’t enjoy his stuff anymore; never did re-read any…or the posthumous publish works. I wonder if any new fans need to have the term “Hitch-hiking” explained to them?

[IronEdithKidd]

Just because you don’t ever want to see it on the Thanksgiving table again?

[I felt bad for the Norwegian descended kids for getting stuck eating that - it *was* dead and buried, should’a stayed that way.]