Washington sees uptick in deer and elk samples for chronic wasting disease testing

More than 400 Washington hunters have submitted elk or deer samples to be tested for a deadly disease this year.

The Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife has gathered 423 samples from hunter-harvested deer and elk to test for chronic wasting disease, an always-fatal brain condition affecting deer, moose and elk. That’s well above the 314 the agency gathered from hunters last year.

It also comes as the disease continues to show up in new places. Earlier this month, Yellowstone National Park reported its first case of the disease. Montana detected it in a new hunting district in the western part of the state this week. Idaho, which first found CWD near Riggins in 2021, found a new case near New Meadows.

Washington has not found the disease in its wild deer and elk populations , and it’s one of five Western states where it is yet to be detected.

Hunter Westacott, CWD surveillance coordinator for WDFW, said the new detections in Idaho and Yellowstone tells the agency that “nowhere is safe,” and that the work of looking for the disease before it arrives is as important as ever.

“It just raises our sense of urgency to test as many animals as we can,” Westacott said.

CWD is spread by tiny proteins called prions, and it can make animals become emaciated and display erratic behavior. It moves slowly, killing the animals little by little over a few years, and symptoms often don’t show up until it’s in its late stages, according to the CWD Alliance.

The disease was first found in captive mule deer at a Colorado research facility in the 1960s. Since then, it’s been confirmed in wild and captive populations in more than 30 states and four Canadian provinces. High rates of the disease have caused long-term population declines.

Westacott said that sort of impact can happen if the disease leads to older female deer dying younger and having fewer fawns.

“If you start having does that start dying earlier, they will contribute less to the overall population over time,” he said. “That’s where you start to see populations declining.”

It’s unknown if humans can contract the disease by eating infected meat, but federal health officials advise against doing so. In turn, some worry that having CWD in an area would discourage people from hunting there, and that it could impact local economies that depend on an annual influx of hunters.

Washington has taken steps to try to minimize the risk of bringing CWD into Washington, with restrictions on what parts of animals can be transported into the state.

Testing for it before it gets here is meant to ensure managers can act quickly if it is detected.

Some level of testing has been ongoing since 1995, but the state ramped up its efforts in Eastern Washington in 2021 after Idaho confirmed the presence of CWD not far from the Washington border.

Lymph nodes from deer or elk are used as test samples. They can only be taken from dead animals, so the testing effort relies heavily on hunters. Testing is free, and this year, WDFW is offering a special drawing for a multiseason deer tag to those who provide samples.

Hunters can collect and submit samples on their own, and WDFW provides resources teaching them how to do so.

They can also make appointments at WDFW offices or with the Inland Northwest Wildlife Council to have the lymph nodes removed. The agency has also provided places for hunters to drop off entire heads for staffers to gather samples from.

But a large portion of the samples is collected at hunter check stations that WDFW runs during the two modern firearm hunting seasons.

During the early season, the agency had check stations throughout the eastern region, from Republic south to Walla Walla. During the late season, which ended last Sunday, it ran check stations mostly north of Spokane.

Each weekend, at least a few dozen samples rolled in. The last weekend of the late season was record-setting: 106 samples were gathered from four check stations, according to WDFW.

Once gathered, the samples are sent to the Washington Animal Disease Diagnostic Laboratory in Pullman for testing. Westacott said results typically come back in four to six weeks.

Most of the early-season samples have been sent in and tested, and the state is still in the clear. The late-season samples are likely to be sent in soon, Westacott said.

A few hunting seasons are still going in Eastern Washington. While check stations are closed, successful hunters can still submit samples on their own or reach out to WDFW or the Inland Northwest Wildlife Council to make an appointment.

Meanwhile, biologists are still keeping an eye out for their other sources of samples such as roadkill and sick or dead deer called in by the public.