The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission announced last week that Chronic Wasting Disease (CWD) was detected in a roadkill deer sampled for routine surveillance in Holmes County, Fla., a first for that state. Chronic Wasting Disease is a fatal neurological disease of deer, elk, and moose caused by infectious proteins called prions.
Currently, there are no treatments, and the disease always results in the death of the infected animal.
CWD has not yet been detected in Georgia, according to the Georgia Department of Natural Resources (DNR) Wildlife Resources Division, which has been conducting annual CWD surveillance for more than 20 years.
Georgia DNR stated it is prepared and will work diligently to implement a CWD response protocol if the disease is ever detected in this state.
What does CWD look like in deer? Often, CWD-infected deer look completely normal, which is why transport regulations are so important.
Over time, symptoms appear, including dramatic weight loss, poor body condition, possibly subtle head tremors, head and ears may be droopy, and, in the last stages, it is not uncommon for the animal to demonstrate excessive drooling.
If anyone observes a deer with any of these symptoms, they are strongly encouraged to contact their local WRD Game Management Office (GeorgiaWildlife.com/ about/contact#gm). To date, CWD has not been known to be transmissible to humans, but per the Centers for Disease Control website (www. cdc.gov/prions/cwd/ index.html), known CWD-positive deer should not be consumed.
CWD-positive states and locations include Alabama, Arkansas, Colorado, Florida, Idaho, Illinois, Iowa, Kansas, Louisiana, Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Virginia, West Virginia, Wisconsin, and Wyoming, as well as Canadian provinces Alberta, Saskatchewan, and Quebec.