VIRGINIA — "Zombie deer disease," a deadly infection that causes deer to dramatically lose weight and coordination and turn aggressive, is spreading across North America, a government report warns. Affecting deer, elk and moose, chronic wasting disease, as it's officially known, had been reported in Virginia and 23 other U.S. states, as well as two provinces in Canada, in January 2019.

The federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which issued the warning, said there's no evidence people will be harmed if they eat meat from infected wildlife. The number of states reporting chronic wasting disease is up by two this year, the agency said. The affected Virginia counties are Frederick and Shenandoah. This fall, staffers with the Virginia Department of Game and Inland Fisheries sampled more than 1,300 deer in the CWD Containment Area and are working to confirm and compile the testing results. DGIF staff are also working with taxidermists statewide to collect a large number of samples from areas of Virginia where the disease hasn't been detected.

The entire state of Tennessee has been added as a Carcass-Restriction Zone. Since Dec. 21, 2018, the only deer parts that can legally be imported into Virginia from Tennessee are: boned-out or quartered meat, hides or capes with no skull attached, cleaned skulls or skull plates with no attached tissue (with or without attached antlers), clean antlers, or finished taxidermy products, DGIF says. The disease got its nickname — "zombie deer disease" — because of the horrifying effects on the animals that contract it. The sick animals sometimes take on the vacant stare associated with "zombies" and they become so gaunt their rib cages are visible.

Chronic wasting disease was first detected in captive deer and other members of the hoofed Cervidae family in the late 1960s in Colorado and wild deer in 1981, and gradually has spread to the Midwest, Southwest and, to a more limited degree, to the East Coast. CWD is related to, but different from, scrapie in sheep, Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy (BSE or mad cow disease) in cattle and Creutzfelt-Jacob Disease in humans, says the Maryland Department of Natural Resources. These diseases also attack the brain and cause deterioration and eventual death. Animals appear to pass chronic wasting disease via saliva and possibly feces and urine, the agency says.

It's possible, however, that chronic wasting disease may be in other states that don't have strong animal surveillance systems, but haven't been detected yet, the CDC said.

Although the CDC has stopped short of warning people not eat venison from infected animals, there's some evidence it might not be a good idea. A separate study from the agency found that laboratory mice with some human genes could become infected with chronic wasting disease.

Maryland DNR officials recommend that hunters field-dressing or butchering deer take these precautionary measures: Avoid shooting or handling a deer that appears sick.

Wear latex or rubber gloves when field-dressing or butchering deer.

Remove all internal organs.

Remove the meat from the bones and spinal column if home processing a deer

Do not use household knives or utensils when field-dressing or home processing a deer.

Avoid cutting through bones or the spinal column (backbone).

If you saw off antlers or through a bone, or if you sever the spinal column with a knife, be sure to disinfect these tools prior to using them for the butchering or removal of meat.

Always wash hands and instruments thoroughly after dressing and processing game meat.

Use a 50/50 solution of household chlorine bleach and water to disinfect tools and work surfaces. Wipe down counters and let them dry; soak knives for one hour. In another study, macaques, a type of monkey that is genetically closer to people than the other animals infected with the disease, became sick after eating meat from infected deer and elk. Of the five monkeys fed infected meat from white-tailed deer, three tested positive for chronic wasting disease, according to The Tyee, a Canadian news outlet. The Associated Press said that was the first time the disease has been found to spread in primates through the consumption of infected meat.