[Brooklyn Attitude]

“Possible mechanism would be a prion based micro-virus that is normally consumed by healthy white blood cells.”

As you likely know prions and viruses are 2 completely different things, but the idea of a virus with prion coat proteins would be pretty scary.

“Note: pigs are a pretty close match systemically for humans. Our guts and immune systems are close enough for something like a Z-virus to cross over ala zoonotic transmission in reverse.”

I think there is a connection between the sick pig, the sick animal in the woods and maybe even the dead deer. If a mutant virus starts infecting animals, it might have a lethal effect when the animal is consumed by humans. Remember that Patrick thanked Darryl for the deer he brought in from the hunt. Things get a bit more complicated when you cant hunt or raise animals for food, not to mention the potential for zombie animals.

[Dead Corpse]

What made me think prion was the link to spongiform encephalitis and kuru.

Especially kuru in this case as it was thought to have been from cannibalizing infected brains.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prion

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kuru_%28disease%29

[MacMattico]

And Rick says the sick animal in the woods was a Boar, a wild Pig, so definitely a sign of a new strain or virus.