Chronic wasting disease (CWD) was confirmed yesterday in an adult female white-tailed deer found dead in Spokane, Washington. It's the state's first case of CWD.
Washington Department of Fish & Wildlife (WDFW) said the confirmation was made by the Washington Animal Disease Laboratory at Washington State University, which tested lymph nodes from the deer submitted in July with a batch of other samples for testing. WDFW said it's still working on details of the case and will hold a press briefing next week to provide more information.
Case found through proactive surveillance
Washington is now the 35th state with documented CWD in wild or captive cervids. It's also been found in four Canadian provinces.
CWD is a neurologic disease caused by misfolded proteins called prions and is fatal in infected deer. It poses an ongoing threat to cervids such as deer, elk, moose, and reindeer because it can spread from animal-to-animal and through environmental contamination. The disease isn't known to infect humans, but officials recommend not eating meat from a sick animal and using precautions when field-dressing or butchering cervids.
WDFW said it's been testing for CWD since 1995 and has increased those efforts in eastern Washington since 2021 due to proximity to known cases in western Montana.
"With the spread of CWD across the country and recent detections in adjacent states and provinces, WDFW has proactively conducted surveillance in this area since 2021," Eric Gardner, WDFW’s Wildlife Program Director, said in a press release. "We detected this case because of the surveillance program, and we are immediately reviewing our Management Plan and the circumstances of this detection."
WDFW said staff members are preparing to collect tissue samples from deer, elk, and moose within the initial response area to understand more about the outbreak, and that it's working with land owners, land management agencies, state and local governments, tribal partners, and sportspeople and conservation groups in the affected area in an attempt to reduce spread of the disease.
