In a scattershot pattern that now extends from coast to coast, continental US states have been announcing new hotspots of chronic wasting disease (CWD).
The contagious and always-fatal neurodegenerative disorder infects the cervid family that includes deer, elk, moose and, in higher latitudes, reindeer. There is no vaccine or treatment.
They’re downright awful. They can survive much higher temperatures than most other pathogens which means cooking often fails to destroy them.
Yeah it’s like 800+ degrees to “kill” it. As prions aren’t alive, they can’t really be killed, just destroyed. And they last for years in the natural environment.
https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC3160281/
Self-replicating protein fibers growing like plant roots through brain tissue? The only thing I can think of that would be worse is that fungus that infects an ant’s brain and makes it go crazy.
And get into the plants growing from that ground, infecting animals who eat them. Prion diseases are seriously scary, and I wish we were putting more effort into finding a cure.