APP-K6D23
Characteristics
Classification: Sub-Cellular parasite
Origin: Synthetic organism
Purpose: To alter the behavior of large predators towards self-destructive ends
Natural Hosts: Most herbivorous mammals
Mode of action
Inspired by other creatures such as [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cordyceps Cordyceps, malaria, and trichinosis, the anti-predation parasite clone K6D23, hereafter as APP, is a parasitic organism that causes behavior changes in its host.
Non-lethal life cycle
In its engineered reservoir, the parasite is ingested by grazing mammals, and the first deployment of the parasite was conducted by spreading larvae across farm fields. One inside, the process of digestion releases the larvae from its dormant state and stimulates it to infect the stomach and intestine mucosa. APP uses a number of common measn of immune invasion, and after a few days, the larvae reach progress to their intracellular stage. At this point two populations aside. For about a month, APP will grow in the intestine and produce spores that are then deposited back into the environment completing the external life cycle.
While the digestive infectious state fades after about a month, a differentiated parasite reproduces and invades many tissues including both muscle and nervous systems. Control of endocrine and nervous systems allows it to put the infected into a less aggressive state.For most in society, this manifests as being generally easy to get along with and therefore pleasant to be around. Because the parasite lives in muscle, it can be passed by kissing and other intimate contact although the infectivity is much less than that of the larvae.
Infection in these circumstances causes only minor metabolic changes that are often offset by increased food intake. Infected can leave otherwise normal, apparently healthy lives.Even if detected, APP has been provided with the means to resist almost all known anti-parasitic drugs.
Infection of predators
A tertiary form of APP occurs when an infected creature is ingested. Outside of its host cells, Secondary APP does not live long out in the environment. However, when the secondary form is exposed to the digestive process, a new set of genes is activated that permanently changes secondary APP to Teritary or Terminal APP (T-APP). Beginning with the infection of stomach and intestines, the parasite rapidly reproduces and expands once again into the nervous and endocrine systems. However, in this context, T-APP produces a more powerful suppression of aggressive behavior including hunting. A small population of predators infected with T-APP will cease hunting and persist through scavenging or other dietary changes that exclude hunting. This tends to be most relevant to omnivores that tend to feel a shift towards a non-meat lifestyle before the disease progresses to its final stage, and they may persist in this state so long as hunting instincts remain suppressed.
Most T-APP infected predators are larger and more dangerous. T-APP is particularly aggressive in non-mammal, but mammalian predators and non-mammalian predators share the same fate. Hunting instincts are eventually turned backwards while self-preservation behaviors are also weakened. The infected will not only give up hunting, but they will begin to wander into positions where they will be hunted. Eventually, T-APP infected are consumed by some other group of predators or a larger predator where the infection of T-APP starts again. This is an obviously weaponized function meant to cull large portions of the predator population.
Eventually the host becomes so large that there is nothing that can prey upon it. In these cases, T-APP progresses with dementia, memory loss, weakness, and eventually death. In most of these cases, predators are too tired and too confused to go anywhere, and they are usually found in a sleeping position where they perished quietly. As the body dies, the parasite takes on a cyst form that allows it to persists in the dead host for a week or two before they too die.
Infection Control
As an engineered disease, APP was meant to be difficult to control. Produced by smaller herbivores, they have little to gain in providing an off switch, and instead they added many forms of anti-microbial resistance as they could. There is no treatment for APP infection. While primary and secondary APP can be asymptomatic, T-APP can be readily recognized but is still terminal.
Because APP lives in the muscle and nerves of the infected, eating undercooked food can put people at risk of infection. Gamma radiation can be used for sterilization of food products. Because the larval coat is resistant to detergent, it is important to was rigorously to remove them, and avoid eating with fingers or claws. Corpses of the infected are also better burned than buried to ensure complete destruction of any dormant larvae.