Chronic wasting disease continues to spread, infecting new areas in Wyoming

The Wyoming Game and Fish Department announced the discovery of two new hunt areas infected with chronic wasting disease in Wyoming earlier this month, and officials have increased testing capacity and are focusing on “priority” herds to combat the disease.

Chronic wasting disease is a deadly neurological illness in the deer family causing starvation, abnormal behavior, and loss of body functions.

The elk population in hunt area 45, near Cody, recently has been discovered to have the disease, according to the department.

“Deer have tested positive for chronic wasting disease in this area for quite some time,” said Corey Class, the wildlife management coordinator for this area. “It was no surprise to have an elk test positive.”

The positive case was discovered after officials tested samples from a harvested elk carcass.

The retropharyngeal lymph node is removed from dead animals and tested for the disease’s protein.

“Live animal tests are possible, but they require surgical procedures,” Class said. “It’s not worth putting the animal through that.”

The first positive elk case in hunt area 114, near Laramie, was also recently discovered. This area includes migration routes of the Snowy Range elk herd—one of the department’s priority herds.

“This is a herd where we’ve done pretty extensive testing,” said Embere Hall, the wildlife coordinator for this region. “We’ve processed somewhere around 200 samples for our priority herds this year.”

The department is taking many samples, but the disease is still on the rise.

Feed grounds bring herds together potentially spreading the disease. 

Hall said the department is working on a specific process to address feed grounds in the context of chronic wasting disease. Details of this plan are expected to be released within the next couple years.