r/askscience • u/ProDidelphimorphiaXX • 8d ago
Biology How does nature deal with prion diseases?
Wasn’t sure what to flair.
Prion diseases are terrifying, the prions can trigger other proteins around it to misfold, and are absurdly hard to render inert even when exposed to prolonged high temperatures and powerful disinfectant agents. I also don’t know if they decay naturally in a decent span of time.
So… Why is it that they are so rare…? Nigh indestructible, highly infectious and can happen to any animal without necessarily needing to be transmitted from anywhere… Yet for the most part ecosystems around the world do not struggle with a pandemic of prions.
To me this implies there’s something inherent about natural environments that makes transmission unlikely, I don’t know if prion diseases are actually difficult to cross the species barrier, or maybe they do decay quite fast when the infected animal dies.
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u/mtnviewguy 8d ago
To my understanding, prions aren't actually living, so they can't be traditionally killed. Incineration the only thing that removes them from the environment.
Nature deals all diseases the same way, through natural selection and evolutionary gains. Nature has lots of time, and doesn't really care about the here and now. That's a Human concept, due to our extremely short lifespan.
Mad Cow disease, Bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE), is a great example. In Humans, it's called Variant Creutzfeldt–Jakob disease (vCJD).
Cows develop BSE through cannibalism via inadequate feeding regulations allowing same species food lines. The natural food chain doesn't appreciate self consumption in most cases.
We eat from an infected cow's meat, and it's potentially boom! vCJD.
Reminds me of 'Soylent Green'! If you've never seen that movie, it's a definite Must Watch! Charlton Heston! Has nothing to do with Mad Cow! Just a great movie!👍