Deer, elk and moose across the country are coming down with a harrowing and fatal illness: chronic wasting disease. It’s caused by something called a prion, a type of protein that all mammals have in their bodies. Some prions can go bad and eat away at the brain. It’s bad news for the animals, and as KUNC’s Rae Ellen Bichell (@raelnb) reports, there’s concern the disease may one day jump to humans.
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