Chronic wasting disease has worried Wyoming deer hunter for years, and now there are worries that elk could start dying from mass infections of the disease.
Chronic wasting disease (CWD) was recently detected in the carcass of a cow elk that was found dead on public land in the Jackson area, Wyoming Game and Fish reports.
That’s not good, avid Wyoming hunter and wildlife conservationist Josh Coursey told Cowboy State Daily.
“The one thing we know about CWD is, when you concentrate animals, it highly increases the risk of it spreading,” he said.
Crowded Elk Conditions
Hungry elk mob winter feeding sites set up by Game and Fish, most of them in western Wyoming. Herds also pile into the federal National Elk Refuge near Jackson, where they’re given winter feed.
“If it (CWD) is not the highest concern for Wyoming wildlife, it should be. It’s fatal to the animals, it’s spreading and it’s moving west,” said Coursey, who is president and CEO of the Muley Fanatics mule deer conservation group.
He's watched CWD hammer Wyoming’s prized mule deer herds, so it’s terrible to think what it could do to elk, he said.
Noted Wyoming outdoorsman Paul Ulrich, who hunts elk in the Meeteetse area and the Wyoming Range mountains, said he is similarly concerned.
“Anytime there’s a hit in close proximity, it’s a concern to Wyoming hunters,” he said.
However, he appreciates Game and Fish staying on top of things.
“I applaud Game and Fish for handling it so quickly,” he said. I fully expect that to continue under director (Angi) Bruce’s Leadership.”
Bruce took over as director of Game and Fish in September.
Animals Die Terribly
CWD is a neurological disease that is 100% fatal in infected members of the deer family, which includes whitetail deer, mule deer, elk and moose.
It’s caused by prions, or deformed proteins, that can be spread from animal to animal through close contact. Or, prions can linger in the soil for years on end and infect animals that come along and disturb the soil by grazing or pawing at it.
During the early stages of infection, animals might appear to be perfectly healthy. As the disease advances, animals can display an array of disturbing symptoms such as drooling, emaciation, disorientation and stumbling.
Safe To Eat?
There have been no documented cases of CWD jumping to humans who eat meat from infected animals. However, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and Game and Fish recommend against eating meat from animals that test positive for CWD.
Game and Fish offers testing for CWD for hunters who turn in the heads, or at least the lymph nodes, from animals they’ve killed.
In some hunt areas, testing is mandatory.
Those are hunt areas 171, 157, 89, 88, 70 and 22 for deer. Most hunt areas for elk in western Wyoming also are CWD monitor areas, along with a cluster in the southeast part of the state.
During this fall’s hunting season, Coursey killed a whitetail deer buck in a hunt area where CWD testing is mandatory. The test came back positive.
Nevertheless, Coursey said he still ate meat from that deer. The possibility of CWD jumping to humans has been closely watched for many years, and so far, there’s no evidence of it.
Mark Heinz can be reached at mark@cowboystatedaily.com.
