Chronic Wasting Disease has been found in several states and 2 provinces. It slowly kills deer, moose, and elk. When contracted, it is fatal in all cases says Center of Disease Control. https://www.cdc.gov/prions/cwd/cwd-animals.html
CWD is caused by a protein called a “prion” the deer “cervid” manufactures. When manufactured incorrectly by the deer, the protein, then will eventually kill it. The deer will become sick and die. Humans thus far have not been affected for consuming CWD game meat but if meat tests positive from a “CWD Management Zone”, meat should be buried in a land fill.
It is passed on to other deer “cervids” by making contact with saliva,urine, and feces. The higher the density of deer the faster it can travel. The most susceptible are whitetails due to the large numbers in some areas, especially deer farms and ranches who raise deer to hunt, for harvest for food, or to create better genetics.
In the case of captive deer farms, they have been at the center of the CWD issue because it is found there often first and then it is passed to surrounding wild populations.
The map below makes my point. It was updated in July of 2018.
Where there are yellow dots, these were captive deer facilities where, when CWD was discovered, all the deer were euthanized to prevent the spread.
A red dot means it was recently found but the deer have not been euthanized at this time.
Grey and dark grey areas are wild populations surrounding the captive deer that have contracted the disease and the areas are designated as CWD Management Zones
Some of these captive deer farms raised deer to be relocated to areas that perhaps had poor deer genetics thus unknowingly possibly spreading the disease to wild populations.
The hard part is that there is no test at this time for live deer according to officials. The deer’s head, brain and tissue are tested in a lab for the errant “prion”. Once found, the land area of concern is identified and managed as a CWD Management Area at both the National and State level.
Early mapping techniques highlighted and indicted the whole state thus making much of the center of the USA all black and obscuring and masking the real focal points of the disease.
In New York you can see the yellow former captive deer facility and the surrounding wild population which was (i believe) secondarily infected now termed CWD Management Zones. The same can be seen in Texas at a captive deer facility and the secondary wild deer infection CWD Management Zone. In Saskatchewan and Alberta there were dozens of captive deer, breeding, farming and ranching facilities that had to be euthanized. That is a lot of dead deer and the surrounding secondary infection which resulted.
https://www.nwhc.usgs.gov/disease_information/chronic_wasting_disease/
Concentrating high density populations of wildlife is risky as it allows disease to move rapidly though them. Wildlife that feed in a concentrated area like a feeder are more susceptible to spread of disease that those wild animals who forage separately. In the case of CWD at farms, deer are fed supplements at feeders allowing the CWD to spread via saliva and move deep into large numbers of deer. Euthanizing was the only solution.
In grey areas were CWD Management Zones exist, all deer harvested are recommended to be tested for CWD prior to consuming the meat.
Accordingly, states must test road killed deer or deer the state has euthanized to test to ensure that the disease has not spread.
In Summary, my investigations have revealed excellent teamwork at the state and national level to define and isolate CWD. I am encouraged that CWD Management areas are on the road to recovery and that management lessons have been learned.
New Laws and rules should be forthcoming.
What this tells me as a hunter is that wildlife agencies are on top of this and that we should look forward to the deer hunt and eat some of the finest venison on the planet!
Good Hunting!
