'Zombie deer' people fear 'could trigger a viral pandemic with no cure' reportedly spotted for sale on Facebook Marketplace
It's almost enough to turn you vegetarian, as a batch of 'zombie deer' meat has popped up on Facebook Marketplace. Even though it's not in a tin, the infected meat does exactly what it says on the tin, supposedly containing a strain of Chronic Wasting Disease (CWD).
We've seen enough episodes of The Last of Us to know what eating contaminated goods can do to us, and unless you want the human race to become a mad mob of mushroom monsters, you should probably avoid eating infected things.
From Night of the Living Dead to 28 Days Later, Resident Evil to The Walking Dead, science fiction has taught us that these things typically never end well. So, we'd want to know why anyone would be going anywhere near meat that's tested positive for CWD, let alone serving it up to your loved ones.
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In August 2025, there were concerns over CWD when sick deer were reported in Idaho. Even though there are no known cases of humans contracting CWD from deer, Dr. Elis Fisk from Washington State University reiterated: "The chances of that happening are pretty rare, but not zero."
This comes after WSU warned hunters or anyone who comes into contact with sick deer to immediately report animals that look like they're showing signs like extreme weight loss, drooling, stumbling, and a (worrying) lack of fear.
While not directly related, we've also reported on the alarming deer fibroma, where the animals have been growing massive tumors on their faces. Taking all of this into account, we'd be steering well clear of tainted meat.
To be honest, the idea of buying meat on Facebook Marketplace doesn't exactly have us worried that our local butcher is about to be replaced.
Over on Reddit, one viral (pardon the pun) Facebook listing is giving away 1 1/2 lb packs of frozen venison hamburger meat that has tested positive for CWD. Most brazenly, the listing says: "Research has shown no transfer from deer to human, however we are not going to consume it."
If it's not good enough for the seller, we'd question why they think it would be good enough for us.
Responding on Reddit, one person wrote: "Risk is low, but also a risk of creating a viral pandemic with no cure, so idk might wanna pass."
Someone else pointed out that CWD is a prion disease, a series of fatal and untreatable neurodegenerative diseases that can't be killed by cooking alone.
Another gobsmacked onlooker added: "If they brought this to a local butcher to have it processed, the risk of spreading those prions to that entire local community in one hunting season has already started.”
A third concluded: "I would not eat that for a million dollars, burn that s*it to ashes. Prions are extremely f**king terrifying, no cure for prion diseases exists or will exist in this century, and it kills you in about a year by slowly cooking your brain."
While we'd again like to remind you that there are no confirmed cases of humans catching CWD, alarm bells rang when two hunters from the same lodge seemingly ate CWD-infected venison in 2024 and died of the prion Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease (CJD) shortly after. In a case of better to be safe than sorry, we'd be chucking that Facebook find straight in the garbage.