For the third time this month, Wyoming has documented a first-time chronic wasting disease (CWD) detection in another hunting area.
Yesterday, the Wyoming Game and Fish Department confirmed that a hunter-harvested mule deer buck tested positive for CWD in Mule Deer Hunt Area 153 in the Pinedale Region, located in the western part of the state.
“Mule Deer Hunt Area 153 is bordered by CWD-positive Mule Deer Hunt Areas 142 (detected in 2023), 144 (detected in 2021), 152 (detected in 2019) and 154 (detected in 2023),” the press release said. “Mule Deer Area 153 is part of the Sublette Mule Deer Herd. CWD was first detected in this herd in 2017.”
Other recent detections in elk hunt areas
The previous detections announced this month were noted in cow elks in Elk Hunt Area 116 in the northeastern corner of Wyoming, near Casper, and in Elk Hunt Area 61 in the northwestern part of the state, near Cody.
A fatal neurologic disease affecting cervids such as elk, deer, and moose, CWD spreads via infectious misfolded proteins called prions, which can be transmitted from animal to animal and through environmental contamination.
