One year ago, the Midwest panicked over the latest threat to big game hunting. There was an old disease that made a comeback after being dormant for years. This disease is called Chronic Wasting Disease, or CWD. CWD is a transmissible spongiform encephalopathy (TSE) of deer and elk. Chronic Wasting Disease can only be found in members of the deer family, so to this date it has not been found in any other species. CWD is a "prion" disease that attacks the central nervous system and causes serious damage to the brain of white-tailed deer, mule deer, and elk. A prion is a mutated protein in the body that causes other normal proteins to fold abnormally and cause sponge-like holes in the brain. Chronic Wasting Disease is similar to Scrapie, found in sheep, and Mad Cow Disease, found in cattle. Both diseases attack the central nervous system and can eat holes in the brain of the infected. Deer and elk infected with CWD will show signs of continuous weight loss, excessive salivation and urination, increased drinking of water, loneliness, and eventually death. Animals can be infected with this disease for months, and even years, before showing any signs of physical depletion. .
According to Helen R. Pilcher, researchers do not know the exact cause of Chronic Wasting Disease at this time. It is known that CWD is transmitted from animal to animal through bodily fluids such as feces, urine, and saliva. It is also spread through contact by scratching on the same posts. Animals living in confined areas have a higher risk of contracting the disease.
The U.S.D.A. Veterinarian Services states that CWD first appeared in Colorado at an animal research facility in 1967 and was identified as a TSE in 1978. The disease was thought to be a nutritional deficiency and received little attention. In 1988, the first wild animal ever reported to be infected with CWD in Colorado was discovered. By this time, Colorado's game managers had started focusing more attention on the disease that was killing the native mule deer.
