Some people claim that prions are “spontaneous” and are not passed via contact between individuals or picked up from the environment. Is this true?

Not all prion diseases are the same- some are inherited, some arise spontaneously, and some are transmissible between individuals. The prion that causes CWD is transmitted from animal to animal. Numerous, good scientific studies have established this. The CWD prion can be spread from infected to non-infected animals through direct contact or through contamination of shared resources or environments. Some of the dozens of research studies include:

• Miller MW et al. 2004. Environmental sources of prion transmission in mule deer. Emerging Infectious Diseases. 10:1003-1006.
• Mathiason CK et al. 2009. Infectious prions in pre-clinical deer and transmission of chronic wasting disease solely by environmental exposure. PLoS ONE 4(6): e5916.
• Plummer IH et al. 2017. Temporal patterns of chronic wasting disease prion excretion in three cervid species. Journal of General Virology. 98:1932-1942.