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Can humans get chronic wasting disease from deer?

Results from brain organoids suggest it is hard for deer prions to infect human brains

Two deer crossing a road

A doe and her young fawn cross a road in Rocky Mountain National Park in May 2022. Chronic wasting disease has spread widely across the United States since it was first discovered in the park’s elk herd in 1981.

Ray Wise/Getty Images

By Erin Garcia de Jesús

Chronic wasting disease has been spreading among deer in the United States, which has raised concerns that the fatal neurological illness might make the leap to people.