"Two deer tested positive at a Tom Green County facility owned by prominent breeder Ken Schlaudt."

"Two captive whitetails tied to the Texas “ghost deer” investigation tested positive for chronic wasting disease at a Tom Green County facility owned by breeder Ken Schlaudt, according to records obtained by Public Domain. Texas officials confirmed the news in a press release Thursday.

Texas is home to a small but profitable industry of deer breeders who raise trophy whitetails in captivity, then move or sell them to high-fenced game ranches for paying hunters to shoot, at prices that can stretch past $15,000. That industry has been plagued by recurring and unexplained outbreaks of CWD since 2021.

State game officials accuse a network of two dozen people of selling captive deer on the black market and poaching wild ones to falsify CWD tests over the last three years as part of a systematic effort to skirt disease-containment rules."

Roque Planas reports for Public Domain November 20, 2025. [2]