Chronic wasting disease prions are the Chuck Norris of infectious materials. Incinerating them at 1,112 degrees will only slightly degrade their infectivity, and you must hit 1,800 degrees to destroy them. They are just fine left out in the environment for years, outside an animal host, without losing infectious potential. They can even survive a trip through the guts of coyotes and crows and still infect deer. It’s tough to kill something that isn’t really living to start.
But we can now lengthen the short list of things that destroy CWD prions.
