October 18, 2004 Rocky Mountain News (Denver, CO) by Gary Gerhardt

Today, nearly every state in the U.S. has a program, hoping it never finds that the fatal prion disease has infected its deer and elk herds.

First discovered in Colorado in 1967, CWD now has spread to 11 other states and two Canadian provinces.

Last year, Colorado found the disease in 248 deer and elk from 16,431 deer, elk and moose heads submitted for testing.

CWD is a neurological disease that attacks the brains of infected animals, causing them to become emaciated, display abnormal behavior and lose bodily functions. Stricken animals always die. How it is transmitted and whether it affects all animals still is being studied.

CWD has a loose relationship to mad cow disease, scrapie in sheep and Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease in humans. However, there has been no evidence that CWD is a risk to human health.

The first combined deer and elk big-game rifle season opened Saturday.

In Colorado, there is no longer mandatory testing throughout most of the state.

Anyone wanting to submit a head for testing to the Colorado Division of Wildlife will have to pay $15.

However, six game units encircling the Denver metropolitan area, eight between Colorado Springs and Pueblo, and 18 in southwestern Colorado will waive testing fees. The waiver is meant to encourage hunters to submit heads for testing in areas where the division needs additional data.

"We are interested to learn if CWD is spreading into new areas," said Todd Malmsbury, Colorado Division of Wildlife spokesman.

"So far we don't have any reports of CWD in southwestern Colorado, but we are concerned we may not be getting enough submissions from the area to be certain."

Last May, wildlife officials were floored to find a dead mule deer buck in the back yard of a home in the southwestern section of Colorado Springs.

The animal tested positive for CWD.

It was 45 to 50 miles south of a dozen infected animals found between Chatfield Reservoir and Sedalia - the farthest south any infected animal had been found in Colorado.

Like Colorado, the majority of western states are relying on voluntary submissions of heads to be tested for CWD.

Marty Frentzel, of the New Mexico Game and Fish Department, said the agency has a voluntary system, with one mandatory unit where only 10 hunters have licenses and any animals taken will be tested.

"We got 230 samples last year and hope for 600 to 700 this year," he said.

"Back a few years ago when all the publicity came out about CWD, we got 768."

Along with Colorado and Utah, the Western states with the most free-ranging deer and elk infected with the disease are Wyoming and Nebraska.

Michelle Zitek, of the Wyoming Game and Fish Department, said it has a voluntary system and will be collecting most samples at check stations and from processors.

"We started sampling statewide last year and the emphasis has been on the 'leading edge' of where the disease is found," she said.

"It now has spread westward to Baggs (southwest of Rawlins) and north to Worland."

She said the state's hot spot last year was Casper, where as many as 32 percent of some herds were infected.

Phil Richmond, of the Nebraska Game and Parks Commission, said the agency has voluntary submissions and does random samples by asking hunters if they will provide samples when they stop at check stations.

"Most of our concern is in the Panhandle, and we are paying additional attention to the North Platte River area," he said.

"We found some infected deer east of Alliance and will take all the heads we can that are submitted in the Panhandle."

Last year, officials sampled 4,200 heads from the more than 50,000 deer harvested, and are hoping for more this year.

CWD has been found, either in the wild or domestic herds, in Colorado, New Mexico, Utah, Wyoming, Montana, South Dakota, Nebraska, Kansas, Oklahoma, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Illinois, and Alberta and Saskatchewan, Canada.