Fatal deer disease nears Idaho

A fatal disease in deer is sweeping across the country, has already been confirmed in Utah and Wyoming and could easily be in Idaho within 10 years, says federal researcher Mike Samuel.

Chronic wasting disease, first found in Colorado in the mid-1960s, has been detected in the deer family in 24 states and is a transmissible spongiform encephalopathy, a disease which creates holes in the brains of infected animals, similar and related to mad cow disease, he told students, faculty and community members at the University of Idaho College of Natural Resources on Friday.

Samuel, part of the U.S. Geological Survey Cooperative Research Unit at the University of Wisconsin, which researches CWD, said the disease found its way into Arkansas this year.

The disease has been confirmed in Utah and Wyoming, both border states to Idaho.

Samuel said it was recently found near Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming’s closest corner to Idaho.

He said it’s unknown if the disease travels at 1 mile per day or 60 miles per hour, but it’s spread mostly through animal contact with saliva, urine and feces.

However, Samuel said in the West, migrations of deer, elk and moose could make it more difficult to track infected animals, as they are known to migrate farther than herds in the eastern United States.

Just like mad cow disease, Samuel said, if an infected deer is ingested, it is believed – but not proven – the venison could infect a person who consumes it.

All deer he hunts get tested. To be safe, those that test positive aren’t consumed, which Samuel admits might be something of a waste.

“We don’t know if humans are susceptible now,” he said.

He said not all other animal species are susceptible, but some are. Based on the chromosomal differences between humans and deer, any risk to humans seems low, he said.

Still, hunters who are unaware of the disease won’t test for it or know how to detect it, he said.

It can only be detected by testing an animal’s secretions, Samuel said. There are no telltale signs when looking at an animal.

He said the animals experience extreme shedding starting about six months before their death.

Samuel said the disease could start killing entire deer populations. He said in 10 years he expects deer populations in Wisconsin to start declining.

Samuel said male deer older than four years are more susceptible.

Unfortunately, those animals are also the ones with the biggest racks that hunters are looking for.

Samuel said many hunters are convinced natural selection will take its course and cure deer, elk and moose of chronic wasting disease.

He said hunters fail to realize entire deer populations will die from chronic wasting disease if nothing is done to stop it.

Samuel said recent research found water can carry the infection. And a recent vaccine to prevent chronic wasting disease actually decreased immunity in the animals and made them more susceptible to carrying the disease in the future, Samuel said.

“What do you do to stop it? That’s the big question,” Samuel said. “I don’t know if we have an answer for that.”