It is a prion disease, like mad cow disease…
Deer across North America are dying from a mysterious disease that gradually destroys the animals’ nervous systems.
An animal infected with the disease can live two years before signs of symptoms — such as a vacant stare, thick saliva, exposed ribs or drooping heads — become visible.
…sick animals and cadavers can spread prions through plants and soil, which could be coated with deformed proteins for years, perhaps even decades.
…macaque monkeys who ate infected deer contracted the disease, the first time the disease was shown to spread to a primate through meat.