[ZN6]

Originally Posted by thumper

Spoiler!

ugh that i am not sure. there has to be some sort of fluid transfer, such as blood or saliva making contact with mucous membrane in order to get infected, get sick and then die and turn... eating (cooked)meat that is infected :dunno:

Spoiler!

From the first season, people ran high fevers when they were bitten. People turn when they die and are subsequently reanimated by the zombie virus. Dr. Jennerfrom season one did the experiments and showed that the virus only activated a certain part of the brain again after people have died regardless of cause. Even when Herschel was decapitated he came back as a walker head, minus the walking.

I think when people are bitten by an unclean corpse, I believe they explained this somewhere, that people run fevers because of the unclean bites. They amputated Herschel's leg and cleaned his wound and he was fine after. If I recall correctly, it took a while before Rick hacks off his leg. That kid who got the prison sickness from the swine died and came back without any bites or wounds.

I guess the cannibals can eat the walkers as long as it doesn't cause them to become indirectly deceased (like choking on a bone and dying) and go through the reanimation process. Like mentioned, everyone is already infected.