If it was just two middle-aged and elderly women talking about their daily lives, Zhang Zian would be too lazy to listen to them. How bored would they be to listen to those gossips? However, the middle-aged woman who came in later mentioned the CDC, which made him pay attention.
"CDC … Where is it?"
The old lady who spoke Cantonese well was at a loss. She might be the type of immigrant who had lived in China for most of her life. After her children settled down in the United States, she was brought over to reunite with her family. It was basically impossible for an elderly immigrant like her to change their lifestyle for most of their lives, and it was unlikely for them to learn a new language.
But in fact, it was not a big deal. Even if one did not know a single English letter, Chinatown could completely meet all the needs of life. Whether it was food, daily necessities, or legal or illegal, they could all be found here. It was almost a country within a country. As long as there was no need to drive, it was completely okay.
Like this old lady, after immigrating to the United States, her lifestyle was no different from that in China. She bought groceries, cooked, walked around, played mahjong, watched Chinese TV programs, and spent 99% of her time in Chinatown. She turned a blind eye to the English-speaking world outside and did not care about the news of the outside world. As long as there was no global war, her peaceful daily life would continue until she died of old age.
When she heard the word CDC, she did not understand what it was at all.
"Grandma, you still don't know? CDC is the Center for Disease Control and Prevention in the United States. A while ago, some doctor was interviewed on TV, saying that there is a disease that is spreading in deer in North America, and this disease may also be transmitted to humans! It is said that if you want to eat venison, it is best to eat venison that has been quarantined through regular channels, "the middle-aged woman explained patiently.
"Oh, that's amazing? Is it like the bird flu? " The old lady was dubious. She looked at the middle-aged woman and looked back at the venison, still a little reluctant.
The middle-aged woman spoke Mandarin, and the old lady also spoke Mandarin with a Cantonese accent.
"This … big sister, I accidentally heard you talking about what disease the deer has?"
Zhang Zian interrupted cheekily.
The middle-aged woman sized him up. He didn't look like a suspect wanted by the Department of Homeland Security, nor did he look like a shop assistant. They were both Chinese, so she replied, "I don't remember the specific name. You can find it on the Internet. It's called Wasting Disease or Diabetes."
"Oh, thank you." He thanked her and stepped back to the corner, indicating that he would not listen to the conversation between the two.
The middle-aged woman continued to persuade the old lady not to buy venison.
Diabetes was definitely not right. He took out his phone and searched for the keywords "wasting disease + deer."
He did not know, but he was shocked.
Since when did this disease begin to spread in North America?
He had been very busy a while ago. Whether it was the trip to Egypt, the insect disaster, or the stray dogs picking up scraps, he had no time or leisure to pay attention to the news on the other side of the ocean. After all, there were only 24 hours a day. It was good enough that he had the spare time to pay attention to the local and domestic news in Binhai.
He had been very busy. Whether it was the trip to Egypt, the insect disaster, or the stray dog scavenging, he had no time and leisure to pay attention to the news on the other side of the ocean. After all, there were only 24 hours in a day. It was good enough to have the spare time to pay attention to local and domestic news.
The so-called deer wasting disease, or CWD for short, was a disease very similar to mad cow disease. Because it was mainly spread in deer, some people called it mad deer disease. In the later stages of the disease, deer would be as aggressive as rabies. Because the movements and expressions of the sick deer were like zombies in movies, it was called zombie deer by the public.
The culprit of mad deer disease was not an ordinary virus or bacteria, but a prion protein. As long as it came into contact with normal proteins in the organism, it could cause normal proteins to change into prion proteins.
The most painful thing was that this prion protein was extremely tenacious, like an unkillable cockroach. Even 100 degrees Celsius could not kill it. At the same time, it was also resistant to radiation, ultraviolet rays, and was extremely resistant to common disinfectants.
As long as one was infected by this prion protein, there was currently no medicine that could reverse the disease.
As of January 2019, 24 states in the United States and two provinces in Canada had reported the discovery of rabid deer disease. There were only 48 states in the United States, which meant that half of the United States had been conquered by rabid deer disease.
Not only that, but mad deer disease had also spread to North America. Cases had also been found in reindeer and moose in Norway and Finland. Even South Korea, which imported a large amount of antler, had been affected. Fortunately, these three countries were limited in area, unlike the United States, which had millions of square kilometers of land.
Some species of deer were used to migrating long distances. For example, in Nunavut, Canada, thousands of wild reindeer would migrate periodically with wolves, making the control of mad deer disease extremely difficult.
There were too many forest parks in the United States suitable for the survival and reproduction of deer herds, and forest parks were often very close to each other, even connected. Deer herds could migrate from one park to another without being noticed.
What was even more troublesome was that mad cow disease and mad deer disease were only two of the many masterpieces of prion protein. In addition, there were sheep scrapie, infectious ferret encephalopathy, and feline spongiform encephalopathy. These animal diseases were collectively known as infectious spongiform encephalopathy.
Several similar diseases had also been found in human populations, including human mad cow disease, which was transmitted from sick cattle to humans. Relevant research had shown that similar mad deer disease could infect primates, such as monkeys. In theory, humans could also be infected, but there had been no cases of humans being infected with mad deer disease.
The strong vitality of prion protein allowed it to resist conventional disinfection methods such as high-temperature cooking. The temperature of cooking and stewing in the home would never be able to kill prion protein.
The spread of mad cow disease was caused by feed manufacturers feeding the meat, brains, and internal organs of sick cattle to normal cattle. The disinfection methods in the feed processing process also could not kill prion protein.
The doubts in his heart finally slowly connected with each other. The unknown meat powder in the Leshi dog food … Was it made of venison?
It was impossible to use high-priced venison, so the cost must be kept low. It was likely to be powder ground from high-risk deer brain, internal organs, and bones containing spinal cord.
As for why manufacturers dared to do this … Zhang Zian could only guess that it was because the scientific community had not yet discovered infectious spongiform encephalopathy in dogs, so manufacturers thought it was okay to make venison into dog food and feed it to dogs.
But did things that had not been discovered necessarily not exist?
If sheep, cows, cats, ferrets, monkeys, and humans, which were unrelated animals, could be infected, would canines like dogs and coyotes be immune?
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