> plants that grow over the soil where deer with CWD decompose can transmit the disease to animals that eat them

I've heard this before but the last I tried looking into it I could only find a single study with these findings. Do you know if this was ever replicated? If so, I'd be interested in reading it -- I have to wonder how careful the researchers were to isolate the raw plant material from the contaminated soil, which may have non-plant matter transmitting the prion. Plants transmitting a prion is just hard for me to believe.