Chronic Wasting Disease May Be Stalking Deer Hunters

A map showing the distribution of chronic wasting disease in North America, as of April 2025. Image: USGS National Wildlife Health Center (United States government work).

TipSheet: Chronic Wasting Disease May Be Stalking Deer Hunters

By Joseph A. Davis

Think of it as mad deer disease.

The disorder known as chronic wasting disease will be awaiting deer hunters in 36 states and four Canadian provinces this fall season. 

And environmental journalists can do a lot to help them understand how to minimize any risks.

 

The backstory

Prion diseases like this are weird. The pathogen is not alive. Not a bacterium or virus, it is an oddly folded protein that replicates in — and damages — brain and nerve cells. 

One other prion disease, bovine spongiform encephalopathy, killed cattle in the 1990s, mostly. 

It was transmissible to humans who ate beef from infected animals. When it infected humans, it was called variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease. And it is fatal.

 

There have been no known

human cases of chronic

wasting disease yet.

So far, so good.

 

Chronic wasting disease was first identified in 1967. There have been no known human cases of CWD yet. So far, so good.

But scientists remain unable to say that it is not transmissible to humans. The evidence is mixed. Studies using only human brain cells (no humans, though) suggest it probably is not. Other studies suggest that it might be. 

It affects more than deer. All cervids are susceptible: mule deer, white-tailed deer, red deer, sika deer, elk, bison, antelope, caribou and moose.

 

Why it matters

All of this matters, of course, because deer and elk hunters like to eat the meat that they kill. And give it to their friends, families and local food banks. Nobody wants anyone to get sick.

The good news is that there are ways to prevent that. That’s where the story is.

Many states have programs of one sort or another to help hunters safely handle the animals they kill. There are a lot of things hunters can do (or not do) to reduce their risk.

 

Story ideas

• Has CWD been found in your state? Where, how and how often? Talk to your state wildlife agency for details.
• Are there captive deer populations in your state? Deer farms are often available to hunters and CWD incidence seems to be higher in such areas. Visit some and talk to managers, hunters and neighbors.
• There are businesses that process killed deer into specific cuts or frozen meat. Find some if any are near you. Talk to managers and customers about CWD safety.
• Are there labs in your state that check deer carcasses for CWD? Talk to them about how to manage the risk of CWD.
• Find local deer hunting clubs and talk to them about CWD.

 

Reporting resources

• Centers for Disease Control and Prevention: Although compromised under the Trump administration’s Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the CDC is supposed to track public health threats. It still offers levelheaded and science-based info on CWD.
• USGS National Wildlife Health Center: This important lab in Wisconsin exemplifies the U.S. Geological Survey’s good-science expertise, with lots of resources on chronic wasting.
• State wildlife agencies: A good place to start looking for local facts and advice, as well as safety programs. For a list, start here or here.
• National Deer Association: This hunters’ group advises people about how to minimize CWD risks. 
• USDA Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service: The job of this unit of the Agriculture Department is to find and control animal disease, like CWD.

[Editor’s Note: For more CWD resources, see this earlier TipSheet. Also see hunting-related TipSheets on concerns about lead ammunition and hunting in wildlife refuges, plus a BookShelf review on the environmental impacts of deer.]

Joseph A. Davis is a freelance writer/editor in Washington, D.C. who has been writing about the environment since 1976. He writes SEJournal Online's TipSheet, Reporter's Toolbox and Issue Backgrounder, and curates SEJ's weekday news headlines service EJToday and @EJTodayNews. Davis also directs SEJ's Freedom of Information Project and writes the WatchDog opinion column.

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* From the weekly news magazine SEJournal Online, Vol. 10, No. 34. Content from each new issue of SEJournal Online is available to the public via the SEJournal Online main page. Subscribe to the e-newsletter here. And see past issues of the SEJournal archived here.