CWD DETECTED IN DEER HUNT AREA 12 NEAR LUSK

12/14/2007

CASPER--Chronic Wasting Disease (CWD) has been discovered for the first time in deer hunt area 12 northeast of Lusk. Two mule deer bucks tested positive for CWD; one from the Redbird area, the other from the Ed Boner Ranch. Chronic wasting disease is a fatal wildlife brain disease that can affect all members of Wyoming's deer family. The disease had not previously been detected in this area, although it has been detected in adjacent hunt areas.

Deer hunt area 12 will be added to the Department's list of areas known to have CWD. The department recommends that hunters taking deer in hunt area 12 transport only the following items: cut and wrapped meat, boned meat, animal quarters or other pieces with no portion of the spinal column or head attached, hides without the head, cleaned skull plates (no meat or nervous tissue attached), antlers with no meat or other tissue attached. The head, spine, and other nervous tissue - areas where the abnormal protein or prion causing the disease is found in infected animals - should be left at the site of the kill or disposed of in an approved landfill.  Rubber or latex gloves should be worn when field dressing any animal and during butchering. Although CWD has been diagnosed in some wild deer, elk, and moose in 10 states and two Canadian provinces, there is no confirmed link between CWD and any human illness.      

After a review of available scientific data, the World Health Organization in December 1999 stated, "There is currently no evidence that CWD in cervidae (deer and elk) is transmitted to humans." In 2004, Dr. Ermias Belay of the Center for Disease Control said, "The lack of evidence of a link between CWD transmission and unusual cases of CJD, [Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, a human prion disease] despite several epidemiological investigations, suggest that the risk, if any, of transmission of CWD to humans is low." Nonetheless to avoid risk, both organizations say parts or products from any animal that looks sick and/or tests positive for CWD should not be eaten.

For more information on chronic wasting disease visit the Game and Fish website (http://gf.state.wy.us)

-WGFD-