In fact, they were actually able to track the course of the disease in many cases through trade records, sometimes tracing infection back to a "source herd" (Growing deer, elk trade complicates disease fight, 8/31/2002, Johnson, Fauber, Bergquist).
Unfortunately, the interstate trade of these animals was allowed to continue relatively unimpeded until CWD became a widespread problem. According to the Milwaukee Sentinel, "The elk trade has already demonstrated a proficiency for spreading chronic wasting disease from farm to farm, as infected animals join new herds. An outbreak that started in a Colorado elk farm ultimately infected 12 herds in three states. An outbreak in Saskatchewan reached 41 herds, including one in Alberta. In Saskatchewan, chronic wasting disease later turned up in wild deer found within 20 miles of the farm where the outbreak began, though authorities have not determined whether the infection somehow jumped from the farm to the wild" (Growing deer . . . disease fight, 2002, p. 2). Similar stories have illustrated the relationship that exists between CWD and interstate trade. .
Conditions on game farms are particularly conducive to the spread of any disease that is density-dependent, as CWD is thought to be. This represents the existing potential for catastrophes when wildlife are domesticated as a form of agrarian industry, a livelihood that involves substituting their natural environment with artificial enclosures, thus introducing the possibility for a wide range of health issues to which these animals have never been exposed. Moreover, they should not be considered as livestock because they are not the result of generations of selective breeding with the expressed purpose of generating animals that provide food, hides, or wool. Rather, elk and deer remain the products of an evolutionary cycle unique to their respective habitats. This habitat does not include a barnyard or corral.
