I have read that BSE/CJD has killed in months. Some forms may be slow yet others were very quick. There might be some fast acting proteins that can’t be sterilized, can be uptake into plants, live in hospitals ....
Odd little thing. It’s not even a living organism like a virus.
That’s right. It’s a supposedly a committed protein.
Think of it in terms of a code, an organic “hack” per se. It needs an organism to copy, though the production of it seems to merely involve the folding of an existing protein.
I believe the means by which this has been/is kept in check naturally is through fire and the inherent tendency of creatures to not eat their own kind.
Factory feeding of brain and spinal materials to animals seems to have gotten it spread about. As I recall reading an article a while back on it, the CWD in the Elk herds of the Rockies likely originated from mink farms feeding sheep offal to minks, some of which escaped.
As it is persistent, probably the best way to eradicate it in a given ruminant area is repeated burning of the ground cover to destroy buildup in grasses from droppings over time.