First case of "zombie" deer disease found in WA

Driving the news: On Aug. 1, WDFW announced the disease had been confirmed by the Washington Animal Disease Laboratory at Washington State University in July.

• The dead adult female deer was reported by a property owner in Fairwood, a suburban neighborhood of Spokane, in February, WDFW spokesperson Staci Lehman told Axios.

What's happening: Similar to bovine spongiform encephalopathy, or mad cow disease, chronic wasting disease is believed to be caused by a type of prion (protein infectious particle) that is found in some tissues of infected animals, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Zoom in: WDFW has been testing for the disease in Washington since 1995 but ramped up three years ago when the disease appeared in Montana.

Threat level: There are no known cases of people getting sick from infected animals.

• But people have contracted variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease after eating beef from cattle with mad cow disease, according to Johns Hopkins Medicine.

• If it could spread to people, "it would most likely be by eating meat from an infected animal," per the CDC.

The CDC recommends avoiding animals that look or act sick and wearing latex or rubber gloves when dressing deer, elk and moose.

• Deboning meat carefully, removing fatty tissues and avoiding consuming the brain, spinal cord, eyes, spleen, tonsils and lymph nodes of harvested animals are other recommendations for hunters.

What's next: WDFW will expand its testing radius and review its management plan for the disease, Eric Gardner, WDFW's wildlife program director, said in a statement.