1/23/2006
Chronic wasting disease: final results are in

SALT LAKE CITY — The Utah Veterinary Diagnositic Laboratory in Logan has finished testing more than 2,100 deer for chronic wasting disease. The deer were taken during Utah's 2005 fall hunting seasons.

Of the more than 2,100 deer tested, eight had the disease, the Division of Wildlife Resources announced Jan. 13.

Two of the eight deer were taken during last fall's muzzleloader season, and six were taken during the rifle hunt.

In addition to the deer that were tested, laboratory personnel are almost done testing about 300 elk taken this fall. So far, none of the elk have tested positive for the disease. CWD has never been found in elk in Utah.

"The disease appears to be staying within areas where we've already found it," said Leslie McFarlane, wildlife disease specialist for the DWR. "In central and northeastern Utah, we estimate that less than 1 percent of the buck population is affected by CWD. In the La Sal Mountains in southeastern Utah, we estimate about two percent of the buck deer have the disease."

McFarlane was surprised to find CWD in two deer taken in central Utah this past fall.

"A deer killed near Fountain Green in the summer of 2003 tested positive for the disease, and we were hoping that would be the only deer we would find in that part of the state," she said. "We tested more than 1,000 deer in that area in the fall of 2003 and 2004 and didn't find any other deer with the disease.

"The two deer that tested positive this year, however, confirms that we do have the disease in the central part of the state."

The two central Utah deer were taken about eight miles apart from each other near the Spencer Fork Wildlife Management Area, about 20 miles north of Fountain Green.

In addition to the two central Utah bucks, five deer taken in the La Sal Mountains this past fall had the disease. So did a yearling buck taken near the south end of Flaming Gorge Reservoir. That was the first CWD-positive deer found in that specific area, but other CWD-positive deer have been in the past near Vernal, just 20 miles to the south.

All of the hunters who took the deer have been notified that their animals tested positive for CWD.

CWD first confirmed in Utah in 2003

Since the fall of 2002, almost 10,300 deer in Utah have been tested for CWD. A total of 26 of those deer had the disease.

Eighteen of the 26 deer came from the La Sal Mountains, four came from the Vernal area, one was taken near the south end of Flaming Gorge, one was killed near Fountain Green, and two were taken 20 miles north of Fountain Green.

CWD is fatal to deer and elk that contract it. However, according to the World Health Organization, "There is currently no evidence that CWD in cervidae (deer and elk) is transmitted to humans."

For more information about CWD, visit wildlife.utah.gov/hunting/biggame/cwd.

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