I saw a wild story about a 'zombie deer' outbreak in Ohio and decided to check it myself.

I spent an hour on the Ohio DNR website and found the original report, which was about a single, contained case from 2023, not a new outbreak like the viral post claimed.

4 comments

4 Comments

amyh121mo ago

Did you see the original report from 2023 on the DNR site?

kevinking1mo ago

Yeah, the "original report" from 2023... I read it, @amyh12. It just seemed like a lot of guesswork to me, not solid proof. People get worked up over these things way too fast.

jason_stone5918d ago

You said it seemed like guesswork, but that's how science often works at first, right? They found one sick deer, so they tested 31 others nearby. When those came back clean, they knew the problem was contained. That's not guessing, that's following the evidence step by step. The scary post just skipped all those steps to make it sound worse.

paul_ramirez1mo ago

That 2023 report mentioned testing on 31 deer from the same area, right? I'm curious what specific part of the DNR's testing method felt like guesswork to you, Kevinking. The way they track chronic wasting disease usually involves pretty clear lab work on brain and lymph node samples. It just seems like the viral post ignored all the containment steps they listed after finding that one positive case.