New York state, which first detected Chronic Wasting Disease in the state last year, when a total of five captive and wild white-tailed deer tested positive, has not found another case in the 8,000-plus deer tested since then. Some other states have not been as fortunate. Illinois, Utah and South Dakota have reported additional cases.
In Illinois, two of the 16 newly identified diseased deer came from Ogle County, marking the first detection of CWD there. In Utah, two of eight deer testing positive came from central Utah, the first cases detected in that part of the state. In South Dakota, out of 2,252 samples, four deer and three elk tested positive. Kansas wildlife officials reported last week that the state could have its first case of CWD after preliminary tests on a deer harvested last month. CWD is a fatal, central nervous system disease infecting members of the deer family. There is no evidence, however, of it being communicated to humans.
Information on CWD is available at the Chronic Wasting Disease Alliance’s Web site.

Two wild elk in New Mexico’s southern Sacramento Mountains have tested positive for Chronic Wasting Disease, the first elk in the state to have done so.
Both elk were killed southeast of Cloudcroft, the same area where a mule deer recently tested positive for CWD. One of the elk, a mature bull, was shot by a hunter. The other was found in poor condition by a state conservation officer.

The West Virginia Division of Natural Resources announced that it has received confirmation that a road-killed deer in Hampshire County tested positive for Chronic Wasting Disease . “This is the first known occurrence of CWD in West Virginia,” said director Frank Jezioro. “Upon receiving this confirmation, we initiated our CWD Response Plan.”
Alberta’s ongoing CWD surveillance effort has identified the disease in a wild mule deer about 30 kilometers southeast of Oyen, Alberta. Efforts to learn more about CWD have resulted in several studies, including, according to the Fort Collins Coloradoan, a recent one published in the “Journal of Wildlife Diseases” that indicates that CWD seems to be affecting male deer twice as much as females in northern Colorado. The study pulls together nearly a decade of research and surveillance.