this post was submitted on 07 Feb 2024
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North America needs to re-introduce wolves everywhere to cull the herd and seriously manage the deer populations.
CWD is a prion, so it has the potential for inter-species spread. Unfortunately, there's likely no guarantee wolves would help this issue. Additionally, infectious materials shed by animals remain in the environment for long periods of time.
It has the potential, but there's no evidence yet of it spreading to canines. Or really any animals other than deer/sheep for this particular outbreak. Fewer deer would mean fewer hosts to spread the prions. Wolves would also be able to kill infected deer earlier before they've hit their maximum prion load.
https://blog.nwf.org/2022/10/predator-impacts-on-the-spread-of-chronic-wasting-disease/
That would only help spread it faster…