National Elk Refuge Confirms Second Chronic Wasting Disease Case, Releases Updated Response Plan
National Elk Refuge Confirms Second Chronic Wasting Disease Case, Releases Updated Response Plan
Jul 15, 2026
National Elk Refuge Confirms Second Chronic Wasting Disease Case, Releases Updated Response Plan Jul 15, 2026 Media Contacts Region 6 Press
JACKSON, Wyo. — The National Elk Refuge has confirmed a second case of chronic wasting disease detected in an elk on the refuge and has released an updated response plan outlining ongoing monitoring, management, and surveillance efforts.
The dead elk, estimated to be three to five-years-old, was found in late April and was sent to the Wyoming Game and Fish Department lab for testing, resulting in a second positive test.
In answer to the second confirmed case, National Elk Refuge has updated their response plan. The updated plan summarizes recent disease trends in northwest Wyoming and outlines actions the refuge is taking to monitor and reduce disease risks.
Current efforts include daily surveillance of elk during feeding operations, testing of all suitable cervid mortality samples, mandatory testing of hunter harvested elk and white-tailed deer on the refuge, carcass disposal through a high temperature crematory and ongoing collaboration with the Wyoming Game and Fish Department and other partners.
The announcement follows confirmation of the refuge's first chronic wasting disease case in mid-April. The first elk that tested positive, also estimated to be three to five years old, was humanely euthanized April 15 after refuge biologists observed signs consistent with the disease, including social isolation, poor body condition, and impaired coordination.
A third mortality sample collected on the refuge tested negative for chronic wasting disease, completing laboratory analysis of all mortality samples submitted during spring 2026.
Chronic wasting disease is a fatal neurological disease that affects members of the deer family, including elk, deer, and moose. The disease can spread between animals directly or through contaminated environments. There is no known treatment or cure.
The refuge has created a public chronic wasting disease information page and will provide updates on wildlife mortalities and disease surveillance results.
Additional information, including the updated Chronic Wasting Disease Response Plan, is available on the National Elk Refuge website.
Press Release Published Jul 15, 2026
https://www.fws.gov/question-answer/chronic-wasting-disease
https://www.fws.gov/press-release/2026-07/national-elk-refuge-confirms-second-chronic-wasting-disease-case
THURSDAY, MAY 14, 2026
U.S. National Parks, Cervid, Feedgrounds, and CWD TSE Prion, all this should have been averted
https://chronic-wasting-disease.blogspot.com/2026/05/us-national-parks-cervid-feedgrounds.html
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and Wyoming Game and Fish Department announce CWD on the National Elk Refuge
May 11, 2026
JACKSON - The Wyoming Game and Fish Department (Game and Fish) and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) announce that chronic wasting disease has been detected in Wyoming Elk Hunt Area 77 on the National Elk Refuge, which is managed by FWS.
National Elk Refuge biological staff humanely euthanized and sampled an adult cow elk suspected of having CWD. Tests conducted at the Game and Fish Wildlife Health Laboratory confirmed a positive case. All CWD samples, including those collected on the refuge, are sent to the Game and Fish health lab for processing.
This is the first documented case of CWD in the hunt area and the first confirmed case of an elk with CWD on the refuge.
Moving forward, National Elk Refuge staff will increase monitoring and surveillance of herds for CWD, re-evaluate some existing programs and implement additional bio-security protocols to keep people and wildlife safe. Any changes will be shared with the public. The National Elk Refuge Chronic Wasting Disease Response Strategy contains the details for next steps.
CWD is a fatal neurological disease that affects deer, elk, and moose. Game and Fish partners with FWS to manage wildlife on federal lands and both will continue monitoring CWD over time to further understand the potential impacts of the disease and evaluate future management actions.
For more information on CWD testing, transmission, carcass transportation, and disposal regulations, visit the Game and Fish CWD webpage.
Visit the refuge website for more information on elk and bison management and CWD at the refuge.
– WGFD –
Media Contacts
FWS Public Affairs Officer Megan Nagel: fws_press_r6@ios.doi.gov
WGFD Public Information Officer Amanda Fry: amanda.fry@wyo.gov
https://wgfd.wyo.gov/news-events/us-fish-and-wildlife-service-and-wyoming-game-and-fish-department-announce-cwd-national
CHEYENNE Wyoming Chronic Wasting Disease Confirmed Muddy Creek Feedground CWD Detected In New Feedground
POSTED: MAY 4, 2026
CHEYENNE REGION NEWS Elk on elk feedground NEWS
CHEYENNE — The Wyoming Game and Fish Department has confirmed the presence of chronic wasting disease on the Muddy Creek feedground. Muddy Creek feedground is within Elk Hunt Area 98, which first detected CWD in 2021.
This is the fifth feedground in the state to have confirmed positive for CWD among elk.
Game and Fish personnel have continued to conduct extensive surveillance for sick and dead elk in feedground areas, collecting CWD samples whenever possible, both before and after the initial CWD detection at the Scab Creek feedground.
This CWD sample was obtained during a grid search for elk skulls with viable brain material at Muddy Creek feedground, carried out after the feeding season concluded.
CWD is a fatal neurological disease that affects deer, elk and moose. Continued monitoring of CWD over time is important to help Game and Fish understand the potential impacts of the disease and evaluate future management actions.
Game and Fish personnel will continue to monitor feedgrounds for elk displaying signs of CWD.
Game and Fish operates 21 feedgrounds in northwest Wyoming where supplemental winter feeding has occurred for more than a century.
The discovery of CWD on feedgrounds in 2025 was anticipated as the disease has continued to spread across the state throughout deer, elk and moose hunt areas.
For more information on CWD testing, transmission, carcass transportation and disposal regulations, visit the CWD webpage. To stay updated on feedground management efforts, visit the feedground webpage.
-WGFD-
Amanda Fry Public Information Officer amanda.fry@wyo.gov
https://wgfd.wyo.gov/news-events/cwd-detected-new-feedground
MONDAY, MAY 10, 2021
Wyoming Game and Fish moves to ‘Phase II’ of elk feedgrounds public process
https://chronic-wasting-disease.blogspot.com/2021/05/wyoming-game-and-fish-moves-to-phase-ii.html
Maryland Two deer tested positive for Chronic Wasting Disease at Catoctin Mountain Park
Two deer tested positive for Chronic Wasting Disease at Catoctin Mountain Park in Maryland during recent white-tailed deer reduction operations and subsequent disease sampling. This is the first CWD-positive detection at Catoctin Mountain Park.
In 2024, three nearby national parks - Antietam and Monocacy National Battlefields and Harpers Ferry National Historical Park - received their first CWD-positive test results, followed by Gettysburg National Military Park in 2026.
https://www.nationalparkstraveler.org/2026/04/deer-test-positive-chronic-wasting-disease-catoctin-mountain-park
WEDNESDAY, JULY 07, 2021
Wyoming Upper Powder River Mule Deer Initiative Research Project raising red flags CWD TSE PRION
https://chronic-wasting-disease.blogspot.com/2021/07/wyoming-upper-powder-river-mule-deer.html
MONDAY, MAY 10, 2021
Wyoming Game and Fish moves to ‘Phase II’ of elk feedgrounds public process
https://chronic-wasting-disease.blogspot.com/2021/05/wyoming-game-and-fish-moves-to-phase-ii.html
SATURDAY, DECEMBER 08, 2018
Wind Cave elk capture project to limit spread of disease or Planned elk drive from Wind Cave National Park raises question about spread of disease?
https://chronic-wasting-disease.blogspot.com/2018/12/wind-cave-elk-capture-project-to-limit.html
WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 21, 2018
Wyoming WGFD Chronic wasting disease cwd tse prion detected in Grand Teton National Park
https://chronic-wasting-disease.blogspot.com/2018/11/wyoming-wgfd-chronic-wasting-disease.html
Wednesday, September 21, 2016
Elk Cull Coming To Wind Cave National Park South Dakota Due To CWD TSE PRION DISEASE
http://chronic-wasting-disease.blogspot.com/2016/09/elk-cull-coming-to-wind-cave-national.html
Thursday, March 10, 2016
WYOMING RIDE EM COWBOY HELICOPTER WRANGLING RAMBO STYLE DEER BULLDOGGING RODEO FOR CWD VIDEO CHRONIC WASTING DISEASE: The Final Epidemic
http://chronic-wasting-disease.blogspot.com/2016/03/wyoming-ride-em-cowboy-helicopter.html
Tuesday, December 01, 2015
DRAFT for Public Review and Comment – November 30, 2015 WYOMING GAME AND FISH DEPARTMENT CHRONIC WASTING DISEASE MANAGEMENT PLAN Singeltary Submission
http://chronic-wasting-disease.blogspot.com/2015/12/draft-for-public-review-and-comment.html
WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 12, 2014
Tuesday, December 01, 2015
DRAFT for Public Review and Comment – November 30, 2015 WYOMING GAME AND FISH DEPARTMENT CHRONIC WASTING DISEASE MANAGEMENT PLAN Singeltary Submission
http://chronic-wasting-disease.blogspot.com/2015/12/draft-for-public-review-and-comment.html
WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 12, 2014
Shenandoah National Park, Chronic Wasting Disease Management Plan/Environmental Assessment
Wednesday, October 29, 2014
Chronic wasting disease now rings Greater Yellowstone in Wyoming
http://chronic-wasting-disease.blogspot.com/2014/10/chronic-wasting-disease-now-rings.html
Tuesday, March 05, 2013
Chronic wasting disease now rings Greater Yellowstone in Wyoming
http://chronic-wasting-disease.blogspot.com/2014/10/chronic-wasting-disease-now-rings.html
Tuesday, March 05, 2013
Chronic Wasting Disease Management Plan/Environmental Impact Statement, Shenandoah National Park Virginia
Tuesday, February 26, 2013
Planned elk drive from Wind Cave National Park raises question about spread of disease
snip...
just when you think it can’t get worse, dumb and dumber step up to the plate. this is about as dumb, if not dumber, than the blunder at Colorado Division of Wildlife Foothills Wildlife Research Facility in Fort Collins, where cwd was first documented. sometimes, you just can’t fix stupid. ...tss this should never happen!
http://chronic-wasting-disease.blogspot.com/2013/02/planned-elk-drive-from-wind-cave.html
Planned elk drive from Wind Cave National Park raises question about spread of disease
snip...
just when you think it can’t get worse, dumb and dumber step up to the plate. this is about as dumb, if not dumber, than the blunder at Colorado Division of Wildlife Foothills Wildlife Research Facility in Fort Collins, where cwd was first documented. sometimes, you just can’t fix stupid. ...tss this should never happen!
http://chronic-wasting-disease.blogspot.com/2013/02/planned-elk-drive-from-wind-cave.html
Friday, November 16, 2012
Yellowstone elk herds feeding grounds, or future killing grounds from CWD
http://chronic-wasting-disease.blogspot.com/2012/11/yellowstone-elk-herds-feeding-grounds.html
chronic wasting disease proximity to elk feedgrounds in wyoming 2009-2010
http://chronic-wasting-disease.blogspot.com/2010/07/cwd-controversy-still-stalking-elk.html
Elk herd in Wind Cave to be culled to fight disease
by: Rae Yost
Posted: Dec 20, 2024 / 02:28 PM CST
Updated: Dec 20, 2024 / 04:39 PM CST
SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (KELO) — A winter tradition will be returning to Wind Cave National Park in January.
The park will be doing an elk management program to reduce chronic wasting disease (CWD).
The number of elk will be reduced to decrease the possibility of CWD in the southwestern herd, one of three herds in the park. The reduction is part of the 2009 park elk management plan.
Park biologist Angela Jarding said that this herd has about 250 to 300 animals. The herd will be reduced to 230 to 270 animals, Jarding said.
CWD was first detected in Wind Cave National Park in 2002, Jarding said. CWD was detected in a private herd next to the park in 1997, Jarding said.
CWD is a disease in which proteins are abnormal and cause symptoms that cause death. The disease is spread through saliva, feces and others as well as through food or drinking, according to the Centers for Disease Control.
Elk, deer, moose, caribou and reindeer can all get infected by CWD.
Elk populations are reduced to decrease animal-to-animal contact and to maintain healthy vegetation.
Symptoms include drastic weight loss, drooling and lack of fear of people and others. An elk can get infected but it may be years before they show the symptoms.
“We don’t see spikes in (CWD) but it’s mostly seasonal (increases),” Jarding said of CWD.
There is no vaccine for CWD. “Currently all that get it will die,” Jarding. “Some live longer than others.”
The southwestern herd has an infection rate of 3%, “It’s a low impact to the population growth from year to year,” Jarding said.
Although the third herd, or southwestern herd, is the focus of the winter reduction, the park service monitors two other herds.
The park has radio-collared elk in those two northern herds, Jarding said. Those herds have been more impacted by elk, she said.
“The population is maintaining, we didn’t want to reduce the size,” Jarding said.
The park service will also do a ground count of herds during calving in the spring. The calves and other herd animals are counted, Jarding said.
During the summer elk tend to “gather in the early morning and late evening…,” Jarding said.
Elk are more gregarious and tend to gather in groups during the winter, Jarding said.
But just because the elk gather in the winter, doesn’t mean the reduction is an easy task.
“The elk are very educated, it’s not easy,” Jarding said. Program hunters can’t simply approach the elk in the open.
The park service has used qualified volunteer hunters to help reduce the herd. Now, only skilled park service employees cull the herd, Jarding said.
The operation is set for about five weeks because park staff will need to follow and track the herd.
“It’s harder in a winter with no snow, we can’t use tracks,” Jarding said.
Any downed elk is tested for CWD. Those infected are incinerated. The elk that are not infected are donated to the Pine Ridge Reservation.
While only the herd in the southwest will be reduced, all the backcountry areas of the national park will be closed to hikers from Jan. 13 through Feb. 14, except on weekends and holidays.
During a reduction operation, the elk tend to move north, Jarding said. It’s safer for visitors and best to close all the backcountry trails during the operation, she said.
https://www.keloland.com/keloland-com-original/elk-herd-in-wind-cave-to-be-culled-to-fight-disease/
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=_VLgJCV5FNs
TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 26, 2013
Planned elk drive from Wind Cave National Park raises question about spread of disease
February 25, 2013 5:30 am • Kevin Woster Journal staff
A relocation plan aimed at reducing the elk herd in Wind Cave National Park and building elk numbers nearby has some critics worried about the spread of chronic wasting disease.
Wildlife officials at Wind Cave and adjoining Custer State Park are cooperating on a plan to use helicopters in early March to push hundreds of elk out of Wind Cave, where they have outgrown available habitat. The plan is to reduce the number of elk in Wind Cave and bolster the elk population in the adjoining national forest and Custer State Park, where the elk herd has dropped.
It is considered a win-win plan by those involved, but it worries critics who include former state Game, Fish & Parks Department wildlife specialist John Wrede of Rapid City. And chronic wasting disease is at the heart of that worry.
Wind Cave has been in a troubled area for the fatal brain disorder affecting elk and deer since a CWD-infected captive elk herd on private land adjoining the park had to be destroyed in the 1990s.
CWD apparently spread from that captive herd into wild elk in the park, causing a problem there that, based on limited data, appears to produce higher rates of infection in elk than elsewhere in the Black Hills.
"When considering just elk, the prevalence rate in and immediately around Wind Cave is far greater than anyplace else in South Dakota," Wrede said. "In fact, you could put Wind Cave directly in the center of what could easily be referred to as an endemic area, where managers and epidemiologists should be trying to figure out how to keep the area from growing larger."
Forcing hundreds of elk out of the park seems to work against such containment, Wrede said.
Wind Cave wildlife officials argue that a drive is unlikely to cause a significant increase in CWD elsewhere in the Black Hills. They also point out that the elk herd in Wind Cave is thriving in spite of CWD, to the point where the reduction plan was needed.
And the higher rates of CWD in the park's elk herd should be kept in perspective, said park biological science technician Duane Weber and natural resource manager Greg Schroeder.
They admit that the numbers of infected elk appear startling, based on limited survey results. Out of 140 elk tested in the park since 1998, 45 have tested CWD positive.
But there's a catch. Those were not random tests. They were tests on elk that were either dead or sick, unlike the more random testing done elsewhere in the Black Hills by GF&P, primarily from elk shot by hunters.
Those test results, based on 15 years of sampling, indicate a CWD infection rate throughout the Hills in deer and elk of slightly less than 1 percent. But comparing the two types of tests isn't fair, Weber said.
"The animals we test are either sick and we suspect chronic wasting and we shoot them, or they've already died and we test them," Weber said. "So it's way higher. Comparing our tests to the state's results is apples and elephants."
It's difficult to know what a more random testing system would show, since Wind Cave doesn't allow hunting within park boundaries.
"In a nutshell, we don't have a very good handle on what our prevalence is, whether it's higher or lower overall," Weber said.
The closest study Wind Cave has to the more random state surveys was a 3-year mortality study based on elk fitted with tracking collars. It indicated that 3 percent of the collared elk that died were CWD infected. For perspective, that was the same rate as those determined to have been killed by mountain lions in the park.
Hunter mortality on those collared elk was 6 to 7 percent, on animals that migrated outside the park during the hunting season, Weber said.
Weber and Schroeder said it should also be noted that Wind Cave elk have been moving in and out of the park for years. Portions of the herd have moved over low spots in fences to reach federal or private forest for calving season, Weber said.
Recent upgrades give Wind Cave officials more control over when and where elk leave and return to the park.
Wrede is pretty sure the Wind Cave rates are higher, regardless of variations in testing protocol. The CWD problem in the Black Hills pretty clearly began with the captive elk herd near Wind Cave and spread into the wild elk in the park and then beyond, he said.
"There may be a better than fair probability that, at least in the case of elk, animals historically testing positive for CWD had origins in Wind Cave National Park," Wrede said.
The issue isn't lost on John Kanta, GF&P regional wildlife manager in Rapid City. He noted that elk have migrated in and out of Wind Cave for years but also said the helicopter drive will get into parts of the population that tended not to leave the park. And now they will.
"We're certainly going to be pushing some animals into areas where they haven't been before, from a place where there has been a higher prevalence of the disease," Kanta said."That's certainly a concern that we've discussed among the staff."
Even so, Kanta doubts the CWD impacts outside the park will be dramatic. And he said the upside of redistributing elk will benefit Wind Cave wildlife and habitat management and hunters and wildlife watchers outside the park.
Building the herd in Custer State Park, where limited elk hunting is typically allowed, and on U.S. Forest Service land nearby will benefit elk hunters and elk watchers, Kanta said.
Weber said the positive side of the plan is big.
"We don't know exactly what's going to happen when these elk go out," he said. "But we think the benefit of this project far outweigh any detriments we might see."
http://rapidcityjournal.com/news/planned-elk-drive-from-wind-cave-national-park-raises-question/article_d4807b7f-a29f-541c-a74e-63219e2fdbcb.html
just when you think it can’t get worse, dumb and dumber step up to the plate. this is about as dumb, if not dumber, than the blunder at Colorado Division of Wildlife Foothills Wildlife Research Facility in Fort Collins, where cwd was first documented.
sometimes, you just can’t fix stupid. ...tss
this should never happen!
https://chronic-wasting-disease.blogspot.com/2013/02/planned-elk-drive-from-wind-cave.html
TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 26, 2013
Planned elk drive from Wind Cave National Park raises question about spread of disease Planned elk drive from Wind Cave National Park raises question about spread of disease
just when you think it can’t get worse, dumb and dumber step up to the plate. this is about as dumb, if not dumber, than the blunder at Colorado Division of Wildlife Foothills Wildlife Research Facility in Fort Collins, where cwd was first documented.
sometimes, you just can’t fix stupid. ...tss
this should never happen!
https://chronic-wasting-disease.blogspot.com/2013/02/planned-elk-drive-from-wind-cave.html
Tuesday, March 05, 2013
Chronic Wasting Disease Management Plan/Environmental Impact Statement, Shenandoah National Park Virginia
http://chronic-wasting-disease.blogspot.com/2013/03/chronic-wasting-disease-management.html
Tuesday, December 18, 2012
*** A Growing Threat How deer breeding could put public trust wildlife at risk
http://chronic-wasting-disease.blogspot.com/2012/12/a-growing-threat-how-deer-breeding.html
Friday, November 16, 2012
Yellowstone elk herds feeding grounds, or future killing grounds from CWD
http://chronic-wasting-disease.blogspot.com/2012/11/yellowstone-elk-herds-feeding-grounds.html
2026
Wyoming wildlife managers nearing completion of plan for feeding Jackson Elk Herd By Billy Arnold / Managing editor Jan 1, 2026 Updated Jan 1, 2026 Feedgrounds
Lucas Bielby and Jay Hoggan drive their team out to feed elk in 2017 on the Patrol Cabin feedground in the Gros Ventre River drainage. The feedground is one of 22 managed by the Wyoming Game and Fish Department, which is nearly complete with plans laying out those feedgrounds’ future in the Jackson region. RYAN DORGAN/JACKSON HOLE DAILY FILE Facebook SMS Email Copy article link Save After years of bureaucratic wrangling over the future of Wyoming’s state-run elk feedgrounds, wildlife managers have nearly completed a plan for feedgrounds serving the Jackson Elk Herd.
While it will likely contemplate two controversial options — ending or reducing feeding, and reducing the herd’s population objective — managers aren’t ready to make those changes yet.
“Until we have support from our constituents to make a change like that and support from the commission, we are not going to be moving forward with those broad-scale changes,” said Brad Hovinga, the Wyoming Game and Fish Department’s wildlife supervisor for the Jackson region.
Instead, as it rolls out a “Feedgrounds Management Action Plan” for the Jackson herd, Game and Fish anticipates taking smaller steps, like trying to disperse elk as they feed them.
A draft for the Jackson herd is set to be presented to the public early this year. The plan will then be presented to the Wyoming Game and Fish Commission, according to a Wednesday press release. Times and locations for the public meetings are set to be posted to the Wyoming Game and Fish Department’s website in early January.
“Game and Fish remains committed to the management of our state’s feedgrounds in an adaptable manner that utilizes the best science available,” Game and Fish Director Angi Bruce said in a statement. “Supplemental winter feeding of elk has continued to grow in complexity. These plans will allow us to adjust to current and future conditions in feedground management.”
The question of feeding is relevant because chronic wasting disease, an always-fatal neurological condition spreading through western Wyoming’s elk, mule deer and moose, has been detected in the Jackson herd and other elk herds at the southern tip of the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem. Research conducted by university professors, and wildlife biologists from Game and Fish and the National Elk Refuge predicts that, when 7% of the wapiti in the Jackson herd are infected, the population will decline whether or not hunters pursue cow elk each fall.
More recent studies conducted by a similar coterie of scientists found that, if feeding continues, chronic wasting disease will spread and kill more elk in the long term than if feeding stops now.
Feeding, consequently, is controversial and has been abandoned in other western states. That includes the Equality State’s neighbor to the north, Montana, which once asked Wyoming to stop feeding so that migratory Wyoming elk wouldn’t infect their Montana brethren with chronic wasting disease when they intermingle in Yellowstone National Park over the summer.
Feeding gathers the migrating ungulates in tight quarters, increasing the risk of spreading disease like chronic wasting disease. But it also has its benefits, propping up elk populations for hunters, helping wapiti survive the winter, and keeping the migrating ungulates out of ranchers’ hay and away from cattle, to which elk can spread diseases like brucellosis.
Figuring out a future of feeding in western Wyoming has, however, proved challenging. On one hand, environmental groups and wildlife advocates have urged Game and Fish and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, which manages the National Elk Refuge, to stop feeding. On the other, lobbies representing ranchers and outfitters have opposed plans to end feeding, threatening to sue the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and to make an end-run to Wyoming’s governor, if needed. The Wyoming Legislature gave the governor the authority to veto feedgrounds closures.
That’s left wildlife managers in a pickle. In March 2024, after four years of planning, the Wyoming Game and Fish Commission adopted Wyoming’s first-ever plan for managing elk feedgrounds, which established a bureaucratic process requiring local wildlife biologists to determine plans for individual feedgrounds: the Feedgrounds Management Action Plan.
For the better part of the last year, wildlife biologists and managers in the Jackson region have been developing a plan for the Jackson Elk Herd. That herd is best known for wintering on the 24,700-acre National Elk Refuge, where thousands of wapiti are typically visible from Jackson, snacking on alfalfa pellets provided by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.
But some of the Jackson Elk Herd also winters in the Gros Ventre Drainage, where state employees also lay out feed. The plan focuses on the two remaining state-run feedgrounds in the Gros Ventre where the state, rather than the federal government, has jurisdiction: The Fish Creek and Patrol Cabin feedgrounds. A draft of that plan is being finalized, Hovinga said.
“We’re just waiting for division chief sign-off and approval,” Hovinga added. “They’re close enough that we’ve been given the go-ahead to start meeting with stakeholders to have conversations about the management action plan and brainstorm ideas to inform the final draft.”
While the plan is considered an internal document, Hovinga said, public meetings are being scheduled to let people know what’s in the plan. Hovinga said there are a mix of strategies that the public will likely support — like low density feeding — and strategies that will take more time to build consensus around, like ending feeding, or changing the population objective.
The latter two are intertwined.
As it stands, the population objective for the Jackson Elk Herd is 11,000 animals. But the herd has been slumping in recent years. The most recent estimate put the herd’s population around 9,870 animals, within wildlife manager’s ideal range but below the department’s objective. Biologists have seen declines in the last three years.
While the Wyoming Stockgrowers Association has said it supports lowering that objective if feedgrounds close, the Wyoming Outfitters and Guides Association has said it wants objectives maintained, whether that’s through keeping feedgrounds open, or through securing new winter range for wapiti.
The draft Jackson herd plan is set to be daylighted as the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service continues its review of the future of feeding on the National Elk Refuge, which could see the agency contemplate phasing out feeding after 10 years and boosting hunting to cull the Jackson herd. The Bridger-Teton National Forest, meanwhile, authorized Game and Fish to continue feeding at two feedgrounds south of Jackson through 2028. A lawsuit from environmental groups prompted the Bridger-Teton to review those feedgrounds’ permits.
Contact Billy Arnold at 307-732-7063 or barnold@jhnewsandguide.com.
https://www.jhnewsandguide.com/news/environmental/local/wyoming-wildlife-managers-nearing-completion-of-plan-for-feeding-jackson-elk-herd/article_54bba576-5aa5-4413-b65e-c5c04a295021.html
Chronic wasting disease prions on deer feeders and wildlife visitation to deer feeding areas
Miranda H. J. Huang, Steve Demarais, Marc D. Schwabenlander, Bronson K. Strickland, Kurt C. VerCauteren, William T. McKinley, Gage Rowden, Corina C. Valencia Tibbitts … See all authors
First published: 10 February 2025
https://doi.org/10.1002/jwmg.70000
Snip…
Finally, we swabbed 19 feeders in 2 areas where CWD was newly detected, finding prion contamination on swabs from 4 feeders. We show that deer feeders in free-ranging populations with high CWD prevalence become contaminated with CWD prions quickly, becoming a potential site of exposure of deer to CWD prions. Our results also demonstrate the ability to find evidence of prion contamination on deer feeders, even in areas where CWD is newly detected.
Snip…
We found that supplemental feeding increased the risk of exposure to CWD prions due to contamination of feeders, increased deer visitation, and increased deer-to-deer contact.
The 12-fold increase in deer visitation to feeders compared to mast trees and 2-fold increase compared to food plots demonstrates increased risk for direct disease spread.
https://wildlife.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/jwmg.70000
Chronic wasting disease (CWD) prion detection in environmental and biological samples from a taxidermy site and nursing facility, and instruments used in surveillance activities
Paulina Soto a b , Nancy Ho a , Mitch Lockwood c , Austin Stolte c , J. Hunter Reed c , Rodrigo Morales a b
Received 20 September 2024, Revised 27 February 2025, Accepted 31 March 2025, Available online 9 April 2025, Version of Record 9 April 2025.
Cite https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2025.179318
Highlights
• CWD prions were identified in a taxidermy and deer nursing facility.
• Contaminated samples included waters, soils, dermestid beetles, domestic flies and a dumpster.
• Surgical instruments used to collect deer samples can get contaminated with CWD prions.
• Some of the infectious particles are readily released from surgical instruments when washed.
• Our results suggest that taxidermy practices actively contribute in the spreading of CWD.
Snip…
In this study, we evaluated the presence of CWD prions in a taxidermy facility where deer heads are processed to prepare skull mounts. Analyses were made using the protein misfolding cyclic amplification (PMCA) technique in various biological and environmental samples. In addition, we also tested the persistence of CWD prions in surgical materials used in surveillance procedures. Our results show, for the first time, CWD-prion detection in a potentially exposed taxidermy facility. In addition, we also tested the persistence of CWD prions in surgical materials used in surveillance procedures. This information has important implications on several fronts of CWD research including environmental spreading, human-related practices, and exposure of humans to infectious animal prions.
Section snippets
Samples
The samples were collected from a taxidermy and free-ranging deer rehabilitation facility located on the same property in Val Verde County, Texas. Texas Parks and Wildlife Department (TPWD) staff were initially notified of a CWD clinical suspect on this property; this animal was ultimately euthanized and confirmed positive for CWD by the National Veterinary Services Laboratory on January 5th, 2020. Samples were collected from different areas on this property where deer heads were processed to Screening of CWD prions in environmental and processing elements from a taxidermy facility
The European mount technique is a widely utilized taxidermy practice aiming to produce a skull of an animal that is free of tissue. The first critical step in making a European mount is removing the flesh from the animal's head. This is achieved by removing the majority of the external flesh, eyeballs, ears, and the brain. Then, the de-meated skull is subjected to a maceration process using bacteria. The purpose of this step is to soften and degrade any remaining tissue on the skull. This Discussion
CWD continues expanding in distribution and prevalence in North America. Hence, an essential factor in limiting the spread of this disease is to monitor and contain infectivity foci. This has proven to be difficult considering the limited diagnostic tools available to effectively identify the CWD infectious agent (prions). Identifying and mitigating the negative role that anthropogenic activities have in promoting CWD transmission is an essential step in developing a prevention strategy. The Conclusion
In summary, the information provided in this report demonstrate how anthropogenic activities, specifically taxidermy practices, animal processing, and rehabilitation of CWD susceptible species, may facilitate CWD transmission through the environmental dissemination of CWD prions. This study, along with future research efforts characterizing the overall level of infectivity, provides relevant information on managing CWD and to control its rapid geographic expansion. …
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0048969725009544
Chronic wasting disease detection in environmental and biological samples from a taxidermy site
Paulina Sotoa,b, J. Hunter Reedc, Mitch Lockwoodc, and Rodrigo Moralesa,b aDepartment of Neurology, McGovern Medical School, University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston, Texas, USA; bUniversidad Bernardo O’Higgins, Santiago, Chile; cTexas Parks and Wildlife Department, Texas, USA
Chronic wasting disease (CWD) is a transmissible spongiform encephalopathy affecting captive and free-ranging cervids (e.g., mule deer, white-tailed deer, elk, reindeer, and moose). Nowadays, CWD is widely distributed in North America. It is suggested that CWD spreads due to direct animal contact or through exposure to contaminated environments previously inhabited by infected animals. CWD may also be spread through the movement of infected animals and carcasses. Taxidermy practices involve processing deer tissues (or whole animal carcasses). In many cases, the CWD status of processed animals is unknown. This can generate risks of disease spread and transmission. Taxidermy practices include different steps involving physical, chemical, and biological procedures. Without proper tissue handling or disposal practices, taxidermist facilities may become a focus of prion infectivity.
Aims: In this study, we evaluated the presence of infectious prions in a taxidermy facility believed to be exposed to CWD. Detection was performed using the Protein Misfolding Cyclic Amplification (PMCA) technique in biological and inert environmental samples.
Methods: We collected biological and environmental samples (plants, soils, insects, excreta, and others) from a taxidermy facility, and we tested these samples using the PMCA technique. In addition, we swabbed different surfaces possibly exposed to CWD-infected animals. For the PMCA reaction, we directly used a swab piece or 10 µL of 20% w/v homogenized samples.
Results: The PMCA analysis demonstrated CWD seeding activity in some of the components of this facility, including insects involved in head processing, soils, and a trash dumpster.
Conclusions: Different areas of this property were used for various taxidermy procedures. We were able to detect the presence of prions in i) soils that were in contact with the heads of dead animals, ii) insects involved in the cleaning of skulls, and iii) an empty dumpster where animal carcasses were previously placed. This is the first report demonstrating that swabbing is a helpful method to screen for prion infectivity on surfaces potentially contaminated with CWD. These findings are relevant as this swabbing and amplification strategy may be used to evaluate the disease status of other free-ranging and captive settings where there is a concern for CWD transmissions, such as at feeders and water troughs with CWD-exposed properties. This approach could have substantial implications for free-ranging cervid surveillance as well as in epidemiological investigations of CWD.
Funded by: USDA Grant number: AP20VSSPRS00C143
PRION 2022 ABSTRACTS, AND A BIG THANK YOU TO On behalf of the Prion2020/2022 Congress Organizing Committee and the NeuroPrion Association, we heartily invite you to join us for the International Conference Prion2020/2022 from 13.-16. September 2022 in Göttingen.
Prion 2022 Conference abstracts: pushing the boundaries
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/19336896.2022.2091286
Artificial mineral sites that pre-date endemic chronic wasting disease become prion hotspots
Heather N'te Inzalaco1,1, Marie L. Gilbertson1, Stephanie J. Katircioglu1, Kenny Lepard2, Jordan McEarl2, Austin Bibb2, Jeremy Dennison2, Dan Grove3, Allen Houston4, Dan J. Storm5, Dan P. Walsh6, Wendy C. Turner7, Stuart S. Lichtenberg8 1Wisconsin Cooperative Wildlife Research Unit, Department of Forest and Wildlife Ecology, University of Wisconsin, Madison, Madison, USA. 2Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency, Jackson, USA. 3University of Tennessee Extension, Nashville, USA. 4University of Tennessee -Knoxville, School of Forest, Wildlife, and Fisheries, Ames Research and Education Center, Grand Junction, USA. 5Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources, Eau Claire, USA. 6U.S. Geological Survey, Montana Cooperative Wildlife Research Unit, Department of Ecosystem and Conservation Sciences, University of Montana, Missoula, USA. 7U.S. Geological Survey, Wisconsin Cooperative Wildlife Research Unit, Department of Forest and Wildlife Ecology, University of Wisconsin – Madison, Madison, USA. 8Department of Veterinary and Biomedical Sciences, University of Minnesota, Minnesota, USA
Abstract
Chronic wasting disease (CWD) is a highly contagious, fatal neurodegenerative disease caused by infectious prions (PrPCWD) affecting wild and captive cervids. As CWD continues to spread broadly over North America, factors influencing geographic expansion remain poorly understood. CWD-infected cervids shed infectious prions in urine, feces, and saliva. Activities that result in cervids aggregating and shedding PrPCWD may result in ‘hot spots’ of environmental PrPCWD deposition, however empirical data regarding the impact of deer attractants on environmental PrPCWD deposition is lacking. Filling this knowledge gap could inform deer and disease management. In 2018, the southwest region of Tennessee, U.S.A. experienced a CWD outbreak. The Ames Research and Educational Center property, centrally located within the CWD zone of southwest Tennessee, contains 49 historical mineral supplementation sites that were decommissioned in 2012. Here, we demonstrate that 32 of the 49 (65%) mineral sites within Ames established prior to the regional CWD outbreak, serve as foci of environmental PrPCWD contamination. Detection of PrPCWD in soils from these artificial mineral sites was dependent on site-specific management efforts. Soil physical properties were very similar across sites and no correlation between PrPCWD detection and soil physical properties was found. The detection of PrPCWD in soils at attractant sites within an endemic CWD zone significantly advances our understanding of environmental PrPCWD accumulation dynamics, providing valuable information for advancing adaptive CWD management approaches.
https://intcwdsympo.files.wordpress.com/2023/06/final-agenda-with-abstracts.pdf
Chronic Wasting Disease CWD TSE Prion, Economical, Environmental, Zoonotic, Risk Factors 2026
https://transmissiblespongiformencephalopathy.blogspot.com/2026/02/chronic-wasting-disease-cwd-tse-prion.html
Cervid CWD TSE PrP Transmission to Humans, has it already happened and being masked as sporadic CJD, What if? July 2026 Review
https://chronic-wasting-disease.blogspot.com/2026/07/cervid-cwd-tse-prp-transmission-to.html
https://prpsc.proboards.com/thread/224/cervid-transmission-humans-july-review
***> USA Report, Scrapie, CWD, BSE, TSE, Cattle, Sheep, Pigs, Cervid, Humans, Zoonotic, 2026
April 2026
https://fdabse589.blogspot.com/2026/04/usa-report-scrapie-cwd-bse-tse-cattle.html
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/403956772_USA_Report_Scrapie_CWD_BSE_TSE_Cattle_Sheep_Pigs_Cervid_Humans_Zoonotic_2026
Tuesday, June 9, 2026
Hazard identification for the risks to terrestrial animal health from the import of hay and straw, BSE, CWD, Scrapie, TSE, Prion
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/hazard-identification-for-the-risks-to-terrestrial-animal-health-from-the-import-of-hay-and-straw/hazard-identification-for-the-risks-to-terrestrial-animal-health-from-the-import-of-hay-and-straw
https://defrauktseprp.blogspot.com/2026/06/hazard-identification-for-risks-to.html
“They analysed over 300 brain and lymph node samples from 178 wild pigs living across Arkansas and Texas, USA…the researchers identified CWD prions in up to 37% of the lymph node samples and 15% of brain samples. The lowest detection rates were in the Texas samples (below 16%), matching the lower CWD prevalence in the state’s cervid population.”
Chronic wasting disease prions in cervids and wild pigs in North America Preliminary Outbreak Assessment DEFRA 26 January 2026 Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
Preliminary Outbreak Assessment
Chronic wasting disease prions in cervids and wild pigs in North America
26 January 2026
Disease report
Chronic wasting disease (CWD) is a fatal neurodegenerative disease of cervids, such as deer, elk, moose and reindeer. It is caused by prions – infectious proteins that cause normal cellular prion proteins to misfold (CIDRAP, 2025). The disease is widespread in captive and free-ranging cervids in North America (Figure 1). For the first time, CWD prions have also been detected in the tissues of wild pigs (Sus scrofa) caught in CWD-affected areas of the USA (Soto et al. 2025). This discovery emerged from a study designed to investigate potential interactions between wild pigs and CWD prions, as wild pigs often coexist with cervids, which can shed prions into the environment. The following assessment discusses the epidemiology of CWD in North America and the detection of CWD prions in wild pigs. It also considers the potential implications for Great Britain.
snip…
While the spread of CWD across North America is often described as ‘rapid,’ it has been suggested that this may reflect widening disease surveillance, rather than a ‘real-time’ indication of geographic spread. CWD epidemics appear to develop relatively slowly compared with other wildlife diseases (EFSA BIOHAZ Panel, 2023). Field and modelling data from North America suggest that it may take 15 to 20 years for CWD prevalence to reach 1% in free-ranging cervid populations, although more rapid transmission may occur in captive populations. The surveillance sensitivity in North America means that the disease may have been present for 10 years or more in some areas before it was detected (Miller et al., 2000).
The prevalence of CWD in affected populations or species varies across North America. In captive herds, prevalence may reach 100% over time, while in affected free-ranging populations, reported prevalence ranges from <1% to >30%. Most clinical cases are observed in cervids 2 to 7 years old, especially males, which is believed to be due to behavioural differences rather than differences in susceptibility between sexes (EFSA BIOHAZ Panel, 2023). At least 13 different risk factors may contribute towards CWD spread in North America, such as host genetics, high deer density or inappropriate disposal of deer carcasses and slaughter by-products (EFSA BIOHAZ Panel, 2019).
Approaches towards CWD control and surveillance in captive and free-ranging deer vary widely across North America within and between jurisdictions (CIDRAP, 2025). A summary of the measures in place in each US state and Canadian province is available from the CWD Alliance (2026), a coalition of wildlife conservation agencies, dedicated to providing accurate information on CWD and supporting strategies to minimise its impact on free-ranging cervids. Wildlife agencies rely on voluntary testing of hunted deer carcasses as the main mechanism for CWD surveillance and management, usually using post-mortem ELISA or immunohistochemistry methods (CIDRAP, 2025).
In the USA, Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) operates the CWD Herd Certification Programme (HCP) in collaboration with state and wildlife agencies. This is a voluntary scheme which aims to provide a consistent, national approach to controlling CWD in farmed cervids and preventing interstate spread by establishing control measures such as fencing, detailed record keeping and CWD testing of all cervids over 12 months old that die for any reason. The Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) operates a similar programme, the CWD Herd Certification Programme. As of December 2025, 28 states were participating in the USA’s CWD HCP and 5 Canadian provinces and one Canadian territory were participating in the Canadian programme (USDA, 2025b, CFIA, 2025).
Control methods fall within three general categories: prevention, containment, and control and suppression. Prevention and containment aim to prevent CWD
Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
introduction into areas where it has not previously been reported and to limit its geographical spread once it has been introduced, respectively. Both tend to include regulatory measures such as bans on the movement of live cervids, cervid carcasses or specified risk materials. Control and suppression aim to stabilise or reduce infection rates within a herd or population through measures such as selective or random culling (EFSA BIOHAZ Panel, 2017).
Despite control efforts, CWD has continued to spread among captive and free- ranging cervids in North America, with increasing prevalence in affected areas (Uehlinger et al., 2016, CFSPH, 2024). Eradicating CWD from North America appears infeasible due to its extent of geographic spread and epidemiological characteristics, such as environmental persistence (EFSA BIOHAZ Panel, 2017).
CWD in wild pigs in the USA
Wild pigs are an invasive population in the USA, especially in the south (Figure 2). They comprise escaped domestic swine, Eurasian wild boar and hybrids of the two (Smyser et al., 2020). Wild pigs frequently coexist with cervids in areas where CWD is endemic and may be exposed to CWD prions through rooting in contaminated soil, scavenging deer carcasses and predation on fawns. These ecological interactions provide multiple routes by which wild pigs could encounter prions from infected deer (Soto et al. 2025).
Under experimental conditions, domestic pigs can become infected with CWD by oral and intracerebral routes, suggesting that wild pigs might also be susceptible. Domestic pigs rarely develop clinical signs of CWD but accumulate prions in the lymphoid tissues in their heads and gut, suggesting that, like cervids, they could shed the prions in saliva and faeces (Moore et al., 2017).
Against this background, Soto et al. (2025) investigated potential interactions between wild pigs and CWD prions. They analysed over 300 brain and lymph node samples from 178 wild pigs living across Arkansas and Texas, USA. The animals were captured by the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) between 2020 and 2021. None of the pigs included in the study were reported to be displaying clinical signs of disease.
Using an ultra-sensitive laboratory method (protein misfolding cyclic amplification (PMCA)), the researchers identified CWD prions in up to 37% of the lymph node samples and 15% of brain samples. The lowest detection rates were in the Texas samples (below 16%), matching the lower CWD prevalence in the state’s cervid population. These findings indicate that wild pigs are naturally exposed to CWD prions in areas where the disease is present (Soto et al., 2025).
When intracerebrally inoculated with tissues from wild pigs, a small proportion of mice expressing deer prion protein developed subclinical prion infection. No transmission was detected in mice expressing pig prion protein. This suggests that wild pig tissues only contain low levels of infectious prions and that wild pigs are relatively resistant to natural infection. However, they could still contribute to CWD transmission, influencing its epidemiology, geographic distribution and interspecies spread (Soto et al., 2025).
Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
While their exact role and importance in CWD transmission is unclear, wild pigs have considerable home ranges in North America (1.1 to 5.32 km on average), which may increase when food is scarce. This mobility could complicate efforts to control the disease if they play a role in its transmission (Soto et al., 2025).
The USDA’s APHIS does not currently conduct active surveillance for CWD in wild pigs (USDA, 2025a).
Figure 2. Geographic distribution of wild pigs (purple) in the USA as of 27 January 2025, comprising escaped domestic pigs, Eurasian wild boar and hybrids of the two (adapted from USDA, 2026). Yellow (Texas) and green (Arkansas) circles indicate the states where CWD prions were detected in wild pig tissues.
snip…
Conclusion
CWD has continued to spread among captive and free-ranging cervids in North America since it was first detected in the 1960s. The finding of CWD prions in wild pigs in the USA suggests they could contribute towards transmission of the disease, influencing its epidemiology, geographic distribution and interspecies spread. However, further research is needed to confirm this. CWD has never been reported in Great Britain and the current risk of CWD prions being introduced into Great Britain’s wild pig or cervid population ranges from very low to negligible.
Readers are reminded to be vigilant for signs of CWD. Information on how to spot the disease can be found here. Suspected cases must be reported immediately to the Defra Rural Services Helpline on 03000 200 301. In Wales, call 0300 303 8268. In Scotland, contact your local Field Services Office. Failure to do so is an offence. We will continue to monitor the situation.
Authors • Lawrence Finn • Dr. Lauren Perrin • John Spiropoulos • Dr. Helen RobertsDepartment for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
References
snip…see;
https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/697a3b013c71d838df6bd413/CWD_Prions_in_Cervids_and_Wild_Pigs_in_North_America.pdf
“They analysed over 300 brain and lymph node samples from 178 wild pigs living across Arkansas and Texas, USA…the researchers identified CWD prions in up to 37% of the lymph node samples and 15% of brain samples. The lowest detection rates were in the Texas samples (below 16%), matching the lower CWD prevalence in the state’s cervid population.”
Detection of Prions in Wild Pigs (Sus scrofa) from Areas with Reported Chronic Wasting Disease Cases, United State Volume 31, Number 1—January 2025
https://wwwnc.cdc.gov/eid/article/31/1/24-0401_article
Camel Prion Disease, Tataouine, Tunisia, 2019–2021 CDC Dispatch August 2026
Volume 32, Number 8—August 2026
Dispatch
Camel Prion Disease, Tataouine, Tunisia, 2019–2021
We report 6 cases of camel prion disease in dromedaries in Tunisia, confirming widespread occurrence in North Africa.
The recent detection of sheep scrapie in the same area of Tunisia as CPrD (15) raises the question of possible links, although no similarities have yet been shown.
https://wwwnc.cdc.gov/eid/article/32/8/25-1474_article
snip…
The detection of PrPSc in all available lymph nodes, together with the relatively young age of some camels, supports the hypothesis that CPrD is a transmissible prion disease. As in scrapie and chronic wasting disease, lymphoid involvement may enable extraneural propagation and serve as a source of environmental contamination (2–5), raising concerns about prion shedding and persistence.
snip…
Taken together, the data from Algeria and Tunisia suggest that CPrD may be endemic in certain areas. Despite the limited number of reported cases so far, the absence of active surveillance programs in those countries, unlike in Europe for scrapie and bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE), raises the possibility of a higher number of undetected cases. Given frequent cross-border movements and the extensive pastoral systems in which camels roam widely, contact between herds in Tunisia and herds in Algeria is frequent and has possible implications for disease circulation.
CPrD may substantially affect camel health and production, given that dromedaries are long-lived animals with extended reproductive and productive roles and are vital to pastoralist communities in arid regions. Its detection in areas where camels are central to food production underscores the need to understand its epidemiology, transmission, and long-term impact.
The emergence of a new animal prion disease also raises public health concerns. Although only BSE has shown zoonotic potential, its history highlights the necessity of monitoring all animal prion diseases. Long incubation and absence of early clinical markers complicate risk assessment, as exemplified by the decade-long delay between cattle BSE and the variant Creutzfeldt–Jakob disease epidemic in humans (2).
Given the potential implications for animal and human health and the possible socioeconomic impact in regions where dromedaries play a key role, ongoing surveillance and in-depth characterization of CPrD are essential to enhance our comprehension of its epidemiology, host range, and zoonotic potential.
Dr. Amara is emeritus professor of histology and pathological anatomy at the National School of Veterinary Medicine of Sidi Thabet in Sidi Thabet, Tunisia. He is also vice president of the Expert Committee on Animal Health at the National Center for Veterinary Surveillance in Tunisia. His primary research interests include prion diseases in ruminants and dromedaries.
https://wwwnc.cdc.gov/eid/article/32/8/25-1474_article
Identification of Camel Prion Disease in Tunisia: evidence of an emerging prion disease in North Africa
https://proceedings.science/prion-2025/papers?prod_proceedings_papers%5BrefinementList%5D%5Btrack.title.en%5D%5B0%5D=Animal%20prion%20diseases
https://camelusprp.blogspot.com/2026/02/
https://camelusprp.blogspot.com/2026/
Texas Creutzfeldt Jakob Disease CJD TSE Prion Disease 2025
Update as of 10/15/25, NO REPORT TO UPDATE…
https://cjdtexas.blogspot.com/2026/03/texas-creutzfeldt-jakob-disease-deaths.html
https://www.dshs.texas.gov/creutzfeldt-jakob-disease-cjd/creutzfeldt-jakob-disease-cjd-data
US NATIONAL PRION DISEASE PATHOLOGY SURVEILLANCE CENTER CJD TSE REPORT SEPTEMBER 2025
From the first full year of reporting CJD TSE in the US in 2000, where 90 cases of CJD was reported that year, to today, where in September 2025, the number of CJD cases reported in the last full year reporting, which would have been 2024, the number of CJD cases for 2024 was 249 cases. So, from the first full year 2000 CJD cases were 90 cases confirmed in that year, to 2024, where 2024 CJD statistics rose to 249 confirmed CJD cases in a single year. A dramatic increase in deaths, from figures that don’t seem to be dramatic. But thes figures today, they are not from “better surveillance”, that dog don’t hunt no more. They have been saying this for over 25 years, year after year, well it’s time to call it for what it is, Human Transmissible Spongiform Encephalopathy TSE Prion cases are rising, and it’s NOT because of better surveillance, or just a “happenstance of bad luck, that 85%+ of all human cases, sporadic CJD, including VPSPr, just happen spontaneously, no, it’s because of unknown environmental factors, and or iatrogenic factors, imho…terry
US NATIONAL PRION DISEASE PATHOLOGY SURVEILLANCE CENTER CJD TSE REPORT SEPTEMBER 2025
https://prionunitusaupdate.blogspot.com/2025/10/us-national-prion-disease-pathology.html
So, this is what we leave our children and grandchildren?
Terry S. Singeltary Sr.
chronic wasting disease proximity to elk feedgrounds in wyoming 2009-2010
http://chronic-wasting-disease.blogspot.com/2010/07/cwd-controversy-still-stalking-elk.html
Elk herd in Wind Cave to be culled to fight disease
by: Rae Yost
Posted: Dec 20, 2024 / 02:28 PM CST
Updated: Dec 20, 2024 / 04:39 PM CST
SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (KELO) — A winter tradition will be returning to Wind Cave National Park in January.
The park will be doing an elk management program to reduce chronic wasting disease (CWD).
The number of elk will be reduced to decrease the possibility of CWD in the southwestern herd, one of three herds in the park. The reduction is part of the 2009 park elk management plan.
Park biologist Angela Jarding said that this herd has about 250 to 300 animals. The herd will be reduced to 230 to 270 animals, Jarding said.
CWD was first detected in Wind Cave National Park in 2002, Jarding said. CWD was detected in a private herd next to the park in 1997, Jarding said.
CWD is a disease in which proteins are abnormal and cause symptoms that cause death. The disease is spread through saliva, feces and others as well as through food or drinking, according to the Centers for Disease Control.
Elk, deer, moose, caribou and reindeer can all get infected by CWD.
Elk populations are reduced to decrease animal-to-animal contact and to maintain healthy vegetation.
Symptoms include drastic weight loss, drooling and lack of fear of people and others. An elk can get infected but it may be years before they show the symptoms.
“We don’t see spikes in (CWD) but it’s mostly seasonal (increases),” Jarding said of CWD.
There is no vaccine for CWD. “Currently all that get it will die,” Jarding. “Some live longer than others.”
The southwestern herd has an infection rate of 3%, “It’s a low impact to the population growth from year to year,” Jarding said.
Although the third herd, or southwestern herd, is the focus of the winter reduction, the park service monitors two other herds.
The park has radio-collared elk in those two northern herds, Jarding said. Those herds have been more impacted by elk, she said.
“The population is maintaining, we didn’t want to reduce the size,” Jarding said.
The park service will also do a ground count of herds during calving in the spring. The calves and other herd animals are counted, Jarding said.
During the summer elk tend to “gather in the early morning and late evening…,” Jarding said.
Elk are more gregarious and tend to gather in groups during the winter, Jarding said.
But just because the elk gather in the winter, doesn’t mean the reduction is an easy task.
“The elk are very educated, it’s not easy,” Jarding said. Program hunters can’t simply approach the elk in the open.
The park service has used qualified volunteer hunters to help reduce the herd. Now, only skilled park service employees cull the herd, Jarding said.
The operation is set for about five weeks because park staff will need to follow and track the herd.
“It’s harder in a winter with no snow, we can’t use tracks,” Jarding said.
Any downed elk is tested for CWD. Those infected are incinerated. The elk that are not infected are donated to the Pine Ridge Reservation.
While only the herd in the southwest will be reduced, all the backcountry areas of the national park will be closed to hikers from Jan. 13 through Feb. 14, except on weekends and holidays.
During a reduction operation, the elk tend to move north, Jarding said. It’s safer for visitors and best to close all the backcountry trails during the operation, she said.
https://www.keloland.com/keloland-com-original/elk-herd-in-wind-cave-to-be-culled-to-fight-disease/
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=_VLgJCV5FNs
TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 26, 2013
Planned elk drive from Wind Cave National Park raises question about spread of disease
February 25, 2013 5:30 am • Kevin Woster Journal staff
A relocation plan aimed at reducing the elk herd in Wind Cave National Park and building elk numbers nearby has some critics worried about the spread of chronic wasting disease.
Wildlife officials at Wind Cave and adjoining Custer State Park are cooperating on a plan to use helicopters in early March to push hundreds of elk out of Wind Cave, where they have outgrown available habitat. The plan is to reduce the number of elk in Wind Cave and bolster the elk population in the adjoining national forest and Custer State Park, where the elk herd has dropped.
It is considered a win-win plan by those involved, but it worries critics who include former state Game, Fish & Parks Department wildlife specialist John Wrede of Rapid City. And chronic wasting disease is at the heart of that worry.
Wind Cave has been in a troubled area for the fatal brain disorder affecting elk and deer since a CWD-infected captive elk herd on private land adjoining the park had to be destroyed in the 1990s.
CWD apparently spread from that captive herd into wild elk in the park, causing a problem there that, based on limited data, appears to produce higher rates of infection in elk than elsewhere in the Black Hills.
"When considering just elk, the prevalence rate in and immediately around Wind Cave is far greater than anyplace else in South Dakota," Wrede said. "In fact, you could put Wind Cave directly in the center of what could easily be referred to as an endemic area, where managers and epidemiologists should be trying to figure out how to keep the area from growing larger."
Forcing hundreds of elk out of the park seems to work against such containment, Wrede said.
Wind Cave wildlife officials argue that a drive is unlikely to cause a significant increase in CWD elsewhere in the Black Hills. They also point out that the elk herd in Wind Cave is thriving in spite of CWD, to the point where the reduction plan was needed.
And the higher rates of CWD in the park's elk herd should be kept in perspective, said park biological science technician Duane Weber and natural resource manager Greg Schroeder.
They admit that the numbers of infected elk appear startling, based on limited survey results. Out of 140 elk tested in the park since 1998, 45 have tested CWD positive.
But there's a catch. Those were not random tests. They were tests on elk that were either dead or sick, unlike the more random testing done elsewhere in the Black Hills by GF&P, primarily from elk shot by hunters.
Those test results, based on 15 years of sampling, indicate a CWD infection rate throughout the Hills in deer and elk of slightly less than 1 percent. But comparing the two types of tests isn't fair, Weber said.
"The animals we test are either sick and we suspect chronic wasting and we shoot them, or they've already died and we test them," Weber said. "So it's way higher. Comparing our tests to the state's results is apples and elephants."
It's difficult to know what a more random testing system would show, since Wind Cave doesn't allow hunting within park boundaries.
"In a nutshell, we don't have a very good handle on what our prevalence is, whether it's higher or lower overall," Weber said.
The closest study Wind Cave has to the more random state surveys was a 3-year mortality study based on elk fitted with tracking collars. It indicated that 3 percent of the collared elk that died were CWD infected. For perspective, that was the same rate as those determined to have been killed by mountain lions in the park.
Hunter mortality on those collared elk was 6 to 7 percent, on animals that migrated outside the park during the hunting season, Weber said.
Weber and Schroeder said it should also be noted that Wind Cave elk have been moving in and out of the park for years. Portions of the herd have moved over low spots in fences to reach federal or private forest for calving season, Weber said.
Recent upgrades give Wind Cave officials more control over when and where elk leave and return to the park.
Wrede is pretty sure the Wind Cave rates are higher, regardless of variations in testing protocol. The CWD problem in the Black Hills pretty clearly began with the captive elk herd near Wind Cave and spread into the wild elk in the park and then beyond, he said.
"There may be a better than fair probability that, at least in the case of elk, animals historically testing positive for CWD had origins in Wind Cave National Park," Wrede said.
The issue isn't lost on John Kanta, GF&P regional wildlife manager in Rapid City. He noted that elk have migrated in and out of Wind Cave for years but also said the helicopter drive will get into parts of the population that tended not to leave the park. And now they will.
"We're certainly going to be pushing some animals into areas where they haven't been before, from a place where there has been a higher prevalence of the disease," Kanta said."That's certainly a concern that we've discussed among the staff."
Even so, Kanta doubts the CWD impacts outside the park will be dramatic. And he said the upside of redistributing elk will benefit Wind Cave wildlife and habitat management and hunters and wildlife watchers outside the park.
Building the herd in Custer State Park, where limited elk hunting is typically allowed, and on U.S. Forest Service land nearby will benefit elk hunters and elk watchers, Kanta said.
Weber said the positive side of the plan is big.
"We don't know exactly what's going to happen when these elk go out," he said. "But we think the benefit of this project far outweigh any detriments we might see."
http://rapidcityjournal.com/news/planned-elk-drive-from-wind-cave-national-park-raises-question/article_d4807b7f-a29f-541c-a74e-63219e2fdbcb.html
just when you think it can’t get worse, dumb and dumber step up to the plate. this is about as dumb, if not dumber, than the blunder at Colorado Division of Wildlife Foothills Wildlife Research Facility in Fort Collins, where cwd was first documented.
sometimes, you just can’t fix stupid. ...tss
this should never happen!
https://chronic-wasting-disease.blogspot.com/2013/02/planned-elk-drive-from-wind-cave.html
TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 26, 2013
Planned elk drive from Wind Cave National Park raises question about spread of disease Planned elk drive from Wind Cave National Park raises question about spread of disease
just when you think it can’t get worse, dumb and dumber step up to the plate. this is about as dumb, if not dumber, than the blunder at Colorado Division of Wildlife Foothills Wildlife Research Facility in Fort Collins, where cwd was first documented.
sometimes, you just can’t fix stupid. ...tss
this should never happen!
https://chronic-wasting-disease.blogspot.com/2013/02/planned-elk-drive-from-wind-cave.html
Tuesday, March 05, 2013
Chronic Wasting Disease Management Plan/Environmental Impact Statement, Shenandoah National Park Virginia
http://chronic-wasting-disease.blogspot.com/2013/03/chronic-wasting-disease-management.html
Tuesday, December 18, 2012
*** A Growing Threat How deer breeding could put public trust wildlife at risk
http://chronic-wasting-disease.blogspot.com/2012/12/a-growing-threat-how-deer-breeding.html
Friday, November 16, 2012
Yellowstone elk herds feeding grounds, or future killing grounds from CWD
http://chronic-wasting-disease.blogspot.com/2012/11/yellowstone-elk-herds-feeding-grounds.html
2026
Wyoming wildlife managers nearing completion of plan for feeding Jackson Elk Herd By Billy Arnold / Managing editor Jan 1, 2026 Updated Jan 1, 2026 Feedgrounds
Lucas Bielby and Jay Hoggan drive their team out to feed elk in 2017 on the Patrol Cabin feedground in the Gros Ventre River drainage. The feedground is one of 22 managed by the Wyoming Game and Fish Department, which is nearly complete with plans laying out those feedgrounds’ future in the Jackson region. RYAN DORGAN/JACKSON HOLE DAILY FILE Facebook SMS Email Copy article link Save After years of bureaucratic wrangling over the future of Wyoming’s state-run elk feedgrounds, wildlife managers have nearly completed a plan for feedgrounds serving the Jackson Elk Herd.
While it will likely contemplate two controversial options — ending or reducing feeding, and reducing the herd’s population objective — managers aren’t ready to make those changes yet.
“Until we have support from our constituents to make a change like that and support from the commission, we are not going to be moving forward with those broad-scale changes,” said Brad Hovinga, the Wyoming Game and Fish Department’s wildlife supervisor for the Jackson region.
Instead, as it rolls out a “Feedgrounds Management Action Plan” for the Jackson herd, Game and Fish anticipates taking smaller steps, like trying to disperse elk as they feed them.
A draft for the Jackson herd is set to be presented to the public early this year. The plan will then be presented to the Wyoming Game and Fish Commission, according to a Wednesday press release. Times and locations for the public meetings are set to be posted to the Wyoming Game and Fish Department’s website in early January.
“Game and Fish remains committed to the management of our state’s feedgrounds in an adaptable manner that utilizes the best science available,” Game and Fish Director Angi Bruce said in a statement. “Supplemental winter feeding of elk has continued to grow in complexity. These plans will allow us to adjust to current and future conditions in feedground management.”
The question of feeding is relevant because chronic wasting disease, an always-fatal neurological condition spreading through western Wyoming’s elk, mule deer and moose, has been detected in the Jackson herd and other elk herds at the southern tip of the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem. Research conducted by university professors, and wildlife biologists from Game and Fish and the National Elk Refuge predicts that, when 7% of the wapiti in the Jackson herd are infected, the population will decline whether or not hunters pursue cow elk each fall.
More recent studies conducted by a similar coterie of scientists found that, if feeding continues, chronic wasting disease will spread and kill more elk in the long term than if feeding stops now.
Feeding, consequently, is controversial and has been abandoned in other western states. That includes the Equality State’s neighbor to the north, Montana, which once asked Wyoming to stop feeding so that migratory Wyoming elk wouldn’t infect their Montana brethren with chronic wasting disease when they intermingle in Yellowstone National Park over the summer.
Feeding gathers the migrating ungulates in tight quarters, increasing the risk of spreading disease like chronic wasting disease. But it also has its benefits, propping up elk populations for hunters, helping wapiti survive the winter, and keeping the migrating ungulates out of ranchers’ hay and away from cattle, to which elk can spread diseases like brucellosis.
Figuring out a future of feeding in western Wyoming has, however, proved challenging. On one hand, environmental groups and wildlife advocates have urged Game and Fish and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, which manages the National Elk Refuge, to stop feeding. On the other, lobbies representing ranchers and outfitters have opposed plans to end feeding, threatening to sue the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and to make an end-run to Wyoming’s governor, if needed. The Wyoming Legislature gave the governor the authority to veto feedgrounds closures.
That’s left wildlife managers in a pickle. In March 2024, after four years of planning, the Wyoming Game and Fish Commission adopted Wyoming’s first-ever plan for managing elk feedgrounds, which established a bureaucratic process requiring local wildlife biologists to determine plans for individual feedgrounds: the Feedgrounds Management Action Plan.
For the better part of the last year, wildlife biologists and managers in the Jackson region have been developing a plan for the Jackson Elk Herd. That herd is best known for wintering on the 24,700-acre National Elk Refuge, where thousands of wapiti are typically visible from Jackson, snacking on alfalfa pellets provided by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.
But some of the Jackson Elk Herd also winters in the Gros Ventre Drainage, where state employees also lay out feed. The plan focuses on the two remaining state-run feedgrounds in the Gros Ventre where the state, rather than the federal government, has jurisdiction: The Fish Creek and Patrol Cabin feedgrounds. A draft of that plan is being finalized, Hovinga said.
“We’re just waiting for division chief sign-off and approval,” Hovinga added. “They’re close enough that we’ve been given the go-ahead to start meeting with stakeholders to have conversations about the management action plan and brainstorm ideas to inform the final draft.”
While the plan is considered an internal document, Hovinga said, public meetings are being scheduled to let people know what’s in the plan. Hovinga said there are a mix of strategies that the public will likely support — like low density feeding — and strategies that will take more time to build consensus around, like ending feeding, or changing the population objective.
The latter two are intertwined.
As it stands, the population objective for the Jackson Elk Herd is 11,000 animals. But the herd has been slumping in recent years. The most recent estimate put the herd’s population around 9,870 animals, within wildlife manager’s ideal range but below the department’s objective. Biologists have seen declines in the last three years.
While the Wyoming Stockgrowers Association has said it supports lowering that objective if feedgrounds close, the Wyoming Outfitters and Guides Association has said it wants objectives maintained, whether that’s through keeping feedgrounds open, or through securing new winter range for wapiti.
The draft Jackson herd plan is set to be daylighted as the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service continues its review of the future of feeding on the National Elk Refuge, which could see the agency contemplate phasing out feeding after 10 years and boosting hunting to cull the Jackson herd. The Bridger-Teton National Forest, meanwhile, authorized Game and Fish to continue feeding at two feedgrounds south of Jackson through 2028. A lawsuit from environmental groups prompted the Bridger-Teton to review those feedgrounds’ permits.
Contact Billy Arnold at 307-732-7063 or barnold@jhnewsandguide.com.
https://www.jhnewsandguide.com/news/environmental/local/wyoming-wildlife-managers-nearing-completion-of-plan-for-feeding-jackson-elk-herd/article_54bba576-5aa5-4413-b65e-c5c04a295021.html
Chronic wasting disease prions on deer feeders and wildlife visitation to deer feeding areas
Miranda H. J. Huang, Steve Demarais, Marc D. Schwabenlander, Bronson K. Strickland, Kurt C. VerCauteren, William T. McKinley, Gage Rowden, Corina C. Valencia Tibbitts … See all authors
First published: 10 February 2025
https://doi.org/10.1002/jwmg.70000
Snip…
Finally, we swabbed 19 feeders in 2 areas where CWD was newly detected, finding prion contamination on swabs from 4 feeders. We show that deer feeders in free-ranging populations with high CWD prevalence become contaminated with CWD prions quickly, becoming a potential site of exposure of deer to CWD prions. Our results also demonstrate the ability to find evidence of prion contamination on deer feeders, even in areas where CWD is newly detected.
Snip…
We found that supplemental feeding increased the risk of exposure to CWD prions due to contamination of feeders, increased deer visitation, and increased deer-to-deer contact.
The 12-fold increase in deer visitation to feeders compared to mast trees and 2-fold increase compared to food plots demonstrates increased risk for direct disease spread.
https://wildlife.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/jwmg.70000
Chronic wasting disease (CWD) prion detection in environmental and biological samples from a taxidermy site and nursing facility, and instruments used in surveillance activities
Paulina Soto a b , Nancy Ho a , Mitch Lockwood c , Austin Stolte c , J. Hunter Reed c , Rodrigo Morales a b
Received 20 September 2024, Revised 27 February 2025, Accepted 31 March 2025, Available online 9 April 2025, Version of Record 9 April 2025.
Cite https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2025.179318
Highlights
• CWD prions were identified in a taxidermy and deer nursing facility.
• Contaminated samples included waters, soils, dermestid beetles, domestic flies and a dumpster.
• Surgical instruments used to collect deer samples can get contaminated with CWD prions.
• Some of the infectious particles are readily released from surgical instruments when washed.
• Our results suggest that taxidermy practices actively contribute in the spreading of CWD.
Snip…
In this study, we evaluated the presence of CWD prions in a taxidermy facility where deer heads are processed to prepare skull mounts. Analyses were made using the protein misfolding cyclic amplification (PMCA) technique in various biological and environmental samples. In addition, we also tested the persistence of CWD prions in surgical materials used in surveillance procedures. Our results show, for the first time, CWD-prion detection in a potentially exposed taxidermy facility. In addition, we also tested the persistence of CWD prions in surgical materials used in surveillance procedures. This information has important implications on several fronts of CWD research including environmental spreading, human-related practices, and exposure of humans to infectious animal prions.
Section snippets
Samples
The samples were collected from a taxidermy and free-ranging deer rehabilitation facility located on the same property in Val Verde County, Texas. Texas Parks and Wildlife Department (TPWD) staff were initially notified of a CWD clinical suspect on this property; this animal was ultimately euthanized and confirmed positive for CWD by the National Veterinary Services Laboratory on January 5th, 2020. Samples were collected from different areas on this property where deer heads were processed to Screening of CWD prions in environmental and processing elements from a taxidermy facility
The European mount technique is a widely utilized taxidermy practice aiming to produce a skull of an animal that is free of tissue. The first critical step in making a European mount is removing the flesh from the animal's head. This is achieved by removing the majority of the external flesh, eyeballs, ears, and the brain. Then, the de-meated skull is subjected to a maceration process using bacteria. The purpose of this step is to soften and degrade any remaining tissue on the skull. This Discussion
CWD continues expanding in distribution and prevalence in North America. Hence, an essential factor in limiting the spread of this disease is to monitor and contain infectivity foci. This has proven to be difficult considering the limited diagnostic tools available to effectively identify the CWD infectious agent (prions). Identifying and mitigating the negative role that anthropogenic activities have in promoting CWD transmission is an essential step in developing a prevention strategy. The Conclusion
In summary, the information provided in this report demonstrate how anthropogenic activities, specifically taxidermy practices, animal processing, and rehabilitation of CWD susceptible species, may facilitate CWD transmission through the environmental dissemination of CWD prions. This study, along with future research efforts characterizing the overall level of infectivity, provides relevant information on managing CWD and to control its rapid geographic expansion. …
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0048969725009544
Chronic wasting disease detection in environmental and biological samples from a taxidermy site
Paulina Sotoa,b, J. Hunter Reedc, Mitch Lockwoodc, and Rodrigo Moralesa,b aDepartment of Neurology, McGovern Medical School, University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston, Texas, USA; bUniversidad Bernardo O’Higgins, Santiago, Chile; cTexas Parks and Wildlife Department, Texas, USA
Chronic wasting disease (CWD) is a transmissible spongiform encephalopathy affecting captive and free-ranging cervids (e.g., mule deer, white-tailed deer, elk, reindeer, and moose). Nowadays, CWD is widely distributed in North America. It is suggested that CWD spreads due to direct animal contact or through exposure to contaminated environments previously inhabited by infected animals. CWD may also be spread through the movement of infected animals and carcasses. Taxidermy practices involve processing deer tissues (or whole animal carcasses). In many cases, the CWD status of processed animals is unknown. This can generate risks of disease spread and transmission. Taxidermy practices include different steps involving physical, chemical, and biological procedures. Without proper tissue handling or disposal practices, taxidermist facilities may become a focus of prion infectivity.
Aims: In this study, we evaluated the presence of infectious prions in a taxidermy facility believed to be exposed to CWD. Detection was performed using the Protein Misfolding Cyclic Amplification (PMCA) technique in biological and inert environmental samples.
Methods: We collected biological and environmental samples (plants, soils, insects, excreta, and others) from a taxidermy facility, and we tested these samples using the PMCA technique. In addition, we swabbed different surfaces possibly exposed to CWD-infected animals. For the PMCA reaction, we directly used a swab piece or 10 µL of 20% w/v homogenized samples.
Results: The PMCA analysis demonstrated CWD seeding activity in some of the components of this facility, including insects involved in head processing, soils, and a trash dumpster.
Conclusions: Different areas of this property were used for various taxidermy procedures. We were able to detect the presence of prions in i) soils that were in contact with the heads of dead animals, ii) insects involved in the cleaning of skulls, and iii) an empty dumpster where animal carcasses were previously placed. This is the first report demonstrating that swabbing is a helpful method to screen for prion infectivity on surfaces potentially contaminated with CWD. These findings are relevant as this swabbing and amplification strategy may be used to evaluate the disease status of other free-ranging and captive settings where there is a concern for CWD transmissions, such as at feeders and water troughs with CWD-exposed properties. This approach could have substantial implications for free-ranging cervid surveillance as well as in epidemiological investigations of CWD.
Funded by: USDA Grant number: AP20VSSPRS00C143
PRION 2022 ABSTRACTS, AND A BIG THANK YOU TO On behalf of the Prion2020/2022 Congress Organizing Committee and the NeuroPrion Association, we heartily invite you to join us for the International Conference Prion2020/2022 from 13.-16. September 2022 in Göttingen.
Prion 2022 Conference abstracts: pushing the boundaries
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/19336896.2022.2091286
Artificial mineral sites that pre-date endemic chronic wasting disease become prion hotspots
Heather N'te Inzalaco1,1, Marie L. Gilbertson1, Stephanie J. Katircioglu1, Kenny Lepard2, Jordan McEarl2, Austin Bibb2, Jeremy Dennison2, Dan Grove3, Allen Houston4, Dan J. Storm5, Dan P. Walsh6, Wendy C. Turner7, Stuart S. Lichtenberg8 1Wisconsin Cooperative Wildlife Research Unit, Department of Forest and Wildlife Ecology, University of Wisconsin, Madison, Madison, USA. 2Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency, Jackson, USA. 3University of Tennessee Extension, Nashville, USA. 4University of Tennessee -Knoxville, School of Forest, Wildlife, and Fisheries, Ames Research and Education Center, Grand Junction, USA. 5Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources, Eau Claire, USA. 6U.S. Geological Survey, Montana Cooperative Wildlife Research Unit, Department of Ecosystem and Conservation Sciences, University of Montana, Missoula, USA. 7U.S. Geological Survey, Wisconsin Cooperative Wildlife Research Unit, Department of Forest and Wildlife Ecology, University of Wisconsin – Madison, Madison, USA. 8Department of Veterinary and Biomedical Sciences, University of Minnesota, Minnesota, USA
Abstract
Chronic wasting disease (CWD) is a highly contagious, fatal neurodegenerative disease caused by infectious prions (PrPCWD) affecting wild and captive cervids. As CWD continues to spread broadly over North America, factors influencing geographic expansion remain poorly understood. CWD-infected cervids shed infectious prions in urine, feces, and saliva. Activities that result in cervids aggregating and shedding PrPCWD may result in ‘hot spots’ of environmental PrPCWD deposition, however empirical data regarding the impact of deer attractants on environmental PrPCWD deposition is lacking. Filling this knowledge gap could inform deer and disease management. In 2018, the southwest region of Tennessee, U.S.A. experienced a CWD outbreak. The Ames Research and Educational Center property, centrally located within the CWD zone of southwest Tennessee, contains 49 historical mineral supplementation sites that were decommissioned in 2012. Here, we demonstrate that 32 of the 49 (65%) mineral sites within Ames established prior to the regional CWD outbreak, serve as foci of environmental PrPCWD contamination. Detection of PrPCWD in soils from these artificial mineral sites was dependent on site-specific management efforts. Soil physical properties were very similar across sites and no correlation between PrPCWD detection and soil physical properties was found. The detection of PrPCWD in soils at attractant sites within an endemic CWD zone significantly advances our understanding of environmental PrPCWD accumulation dynamics, providing valuable information for advancing adaptive CWD management approaches.
https://intcwdsympo.files.wordpress.com/2023/06/final-agenda-with-abstracts.pdf
Chronic Wasting Disease CWD TSE Prion, Economical, Environmental, Zoonotic, Risk Factors 2026
https://transmissiblespongiformencephalopathy.blogspot.com/2026/02/chronic-wasting-disease-cwd-tse-prion.html
Cervid CWD TSE PrP Transmission to Humans, has it already happened and being masked as sporadic CJD, What if? July 2026 Review
https://chronic-wasting-disease.blogspot.com/2026/07/cervid-cwd-tse-prp-transmission-to.html
https://prpsc.proboards.com/thread/224/cervid-transmission-humans-july-review
***> USA Report, Scrapie, CWD, BSE, TSE, Cattle, Sheep, Pigs, Cervid, Humans, Zoonotic, 2026
April 2026
https://fdabse589.blogspot.com/2026/04/usa-report-scrapie-cwd-bse-tse-cattle.html
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/403956772_USA_Report_Scrapie_CWD_BSE_TSE_Cattle_Sheep_Pigs_Cervid_Humans_Zoonotic_2026
Tuesday, June 9, 2026
Hazard identification for the risks to terrestrial animal health from the import of hay and straw, BSE, CWD, Scrapie, TSE, Prion
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/hazard-identification-for-the-risks-to-terrestrial-animal-health-from-the-import-of-hay-and-straw/hazard-identification-for-the-risks-to-terrestrial-animal-health-from-the-import-of-hay-and-straw
https://defrauktseprp.blogspot.com/2026/06/hazard-identification-for-risks-to.html
“They analysed over 300 brain and lymph node samples from 178 wild pigs living across Arkansas and Texas, USA…the researchers identified CWD prions in up to 37% of the lymph node samples and 15% of brain samples. The lowest detection rates were in the Texas samples (below 16%), matching the lower CWD prevalence in the state’s cervid population.”
Chronic wasting disease prions in cervids and wild pigs in North America Preliminary Outbreak Assessment DEFRA 26 January 2026 Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
Preliminary Outbreak Assessment
Chronic wasting disease prions in cervids and wild pigs in North America
26 January 2026
Disease report
Chronic wasting disease (CWD) is a fatal neurodegenerative disease of cervids, such as deer, elk, moose and reindeer. It is caused by prions – infectious proteins that cause normal cellular prion proteins to misfold (CIDRAP, 2025). The disease is widespread in captive and free-ranging cervids in North America (Figure 1). For the first time, CWD prions have also been detected in the tissues of wild pigs (Sus scrofa) caught in CWD-affected areas of the USA (Soto et al. 2025). This discovery emerged from a study designed to investigate potential interactions between wild pigs and CWD prions, as wild pigs often coexist with cervids, which can shed prions into the environment. The following assessment discusses the epidemiology of CWD in North America and the detection of CWD prions in wild pigs. It also considers the potential implications for Great Britain.
snip…
While the spread of CWD across North America is often described as ‘rapid,’ it has been suggested that this may reflect widening disease surveillance, rather than a ‘real-time’ indication of geographic spread. CWD epidemics appear to develop relatively slowly compared with other wildlife diseases (EFSA BIOHAZ Panel, 2023). Field and modelling data from North America suggest that it may take 15 to 20 years for CWD prevalence to reach 1% in free-ranging cervid populations, although more rapid transmission may occur in captive populations. The surveillance sensitivity in North America means that the disease may have been present for 10 years or more in some areas before it was detected (Miller et al., 2000).
The prevalence of CWD in affected populations or species varies across North America. In captive herds, prevalence may reach 100% over time, while in affected free-ranging populations, reported prevalence ranges from <1% to >30%. Most clinical cases are observed in cervids 2 to 7 years old, especially males, which is believed to be due to behavioural differences rather than differences in susceptibility between sexes (EFSA BIOHAZ Panel, 2023). At least 13 different risk factors may contribute towards CWD spread in North America, such as host genetics, high deer density or inappropriate disposal of deer carcasses and slaughter by-products (EFSA BIOHAZ Panel, 2019).
Approaches towards CWD control and surveillance in captive and free-ranging deer vary widely across North America within and between jurisdictions (CIDRAP, 2025). A summary of the measures in place in each US state and Canadian province is available from the CWD Alliance (2026), a coalition of wildlife conservation agencies, dedicated to providing accurate information on CWD and supporting strategies to minimise its impact on free-ranging cervids. Wildlife agencies rely on voluntary testing of hunted deer carcasses as the main mechanism for CWD surveillance and management, usually using post-mortem ELISA or immunohistochemistry methods (CIDRAP, 2025).
In the USA, Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) operates the CWD Herd Certification Programme (HCP) in collaboration with state and wildlife agencies. This is a voluntary scheme which aims to provide a consistent, national approach to controlling CWD in farmed cervids and preventing interstate spread by establishing control measures such as fencing, detailed record keeping and CWD testing of all cervids over 12 months old that die for any reason. The Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) operates a similar programme, the CWD Herd Certification Programme. As of December 2025, 28 states were participating in the USA’s CWD HCP and 5 Canadian provinces and one Canadian territory were participating in the Canadian programme (USDA, 2025b, CFIA, 2025).
Control methods fall within three general categories: prevention, containment, and control and suppression. Prevention and containment aim to prevent CWD
Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
introduction into areas where it has not previously been reported and to limit its geographical spread once it has been introduced, respectively. Both tend to include regulatory measures such as bans on the movement of live cervids, cervid carcasses or specified risk materials. Control and suppression aim to stabilise or reduce infection rates within a herd or population through measures such as selective or random culling (EFSA BIOHAZ Panel, 2017).
Despite control efforts, CWD has continued to spread among captive and free- ranging cervids in North America, with increasing prevalence in affected areas (Uehlinger et al., 2016, CFSPH, 2024). Eradicating CWD from North America appears infeasible due to its extent of geographic spread and epidemiological characteristics, such as environmental persistence (EFSA BIOHAZ Panel, 2017).
CWD in wild pigs in the USA
Wild pigs are an invasive population in the USA, especially in the south (Figure 2). They comprise escaped domestic swine, Eurasian wild boar and hybrids of the two (Smyser et al., 2020). Wild pigs frequently coexist with cervids in areas where CWD is endemic and may be exposed to CWD prions through rooting in contaminated soil, scavenging deer carcasses and predation on fawns. These ecological interactions provide multiple routes by which wild pigs could encounter prions from infected deer (Soto et al. 2025).
Under experimental conditions, domestic pigs can become infected with CWD by oral and intracerebral routes, suggesting that wild pigs might also be susceptible. Domestic pigs rarely develop clinical signs of CWD but accumulate prions in the lymphoid tissues in their heads and gut, suggesting that, like cervids, they could shed the prions in saliva and faeces (Moore et al., 2017).
Against this background, Soto et al. (2025) investigated potential interactions between wild pigs and CWD prions. They analysed over 300 brain and lymph node samples from 178 wild pigs living across Arkansas and Texas, USA. The animals were captured by the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) between 2020 and 2021. None of the pigs included in the study were reported to be displaying clinical signs of disease.
Using an ultra-sensitive laboratory method (protein misfolding cyclic amplification (PMCA)), the researchers identified CWD prions in up to 37% of the lymph node samples and 15% of brain samples. The lowest detection rates were in the Texas samples (below 16%), matching the lower CWD prevalence in the state’s cervid population. These findings indicate that wild pigs are naturally exposed to CWD prions in areas where the disease is present (Soto et al., 2025).
When intracerebrally inoculated with tissues from wild pigs, a small proportion of mice expressing deer prion protein developed subclinical prion infection. No transmission was detected in mice expressing pig prion protein. This suggests that wild pig tissues only contain low levels of infectious prions and that wild pigs are relatively resistant to natural infection. However, they could still contribute to CWD transmission, influencing its epidemiology, geographic distribution and interspecies spread (Soto et al., 2025).
Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
While their exact role and importance in CWD transmission is unclear, wild pigs have considerable home ranges in North America (1.1 to 5.32 km on average), which may increase when food is scarce. This mobility could complicate efforts to control the disease if they play a role in its transmission (Soto et al., 2025).
The USDA’s APHIS does not currently conduct active surveillance for CWD in wild pigs (USDA, 2025a).
Figure 2. Geographic distribution of wild pigs (purple) in the USA as of 27 January 2025, comprising escaped domestic pigs, Eurasian wild boar and hybrids of the two (adapted from USDA, 2026). Yellow (Texas) and green (Arkansas) circles indicate the states where CWD prions were detected in wild pig tissues.
snip…
Conclusion
CWD has continued to spread among captive and free-ranging cervids in North America since it was first detected in the 1960s. The finding of CWD prions in wild pigs in the USA suggests they could contribute towards transmission of the disease, influencing its epidemiology, geographic distribution and interspecies spread. However, further research is needed to confirm this. CWD has never been reported in Great Britain and the current risk of CWD prions being introduced into Great Britain’s wild pig or cervid population ranges from very low to negligible.
Readers are reminded to be vigilant for signs of CWD. Information on how to spot the disease can be found here. Suspected cases must be reported immediately to the Defra Rural Services Helpline on 03000 200 301. In Wales, call 0300 303 8268. In Scotland, contact your local Field Services Office. Failure to do so is an offence. We will continue to monitor the situation.
Authors • Lawrence Finn • Dr. Lauren Perrin • John Spiropoulos • Dr. Helen RobertsDepartment for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
References
snip…see;
https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/697a3b013c71d838df6bd413/CWD_Prions_in_Cervids_and_Wild_Pigs_in_North_America.pdf
“They analysed over 300 brain and lymph node samples from 178 wild pigs living across Arkansas and Texas, USA…the researchers identified CWD prions in up to 37% of the lymph node samples and 15% of brain samples. The lowest detection rates were in the Texas samples (below 16%), matching the lower CWD prevalence in the state’s cervid population.”
Detection of Prions in Wild Pigs (Sus scrofa) from Areas with Reported Chronic Wasting Disease Cases, United State Volume 31, Number 1—January 2025
https://wwwnc.cdc.gov/eid/article/31/1/24-0401_article
Camel Prion Disease, Tataouine, Tunisia, 2019–2021 CDC Dispatch August 2026
Volume 32, Number 8—August 2026
Dispatch
Camel Prion Disease, Tataouine, Tunisia, 2019–2021
We report 6 cases of camel prion disease in dromedaries in Tunisia, confirming widespread occurrence in North Africa.
The recent detection of sheep scrapie in the same area of Tunisia as CPrD (15) raises the question of possible links, although no similarities have yet been shown.
https://wwwnc.cdc.gov/eid/article/32/8/25-1474_article
snip…
The detection of PrPSc in all available lymph nodes, together with the relatively young age of some camels, supports the hypothesis that CPrD is a transmissible prion disease. As in scrapie and chronic wasting disease, lymphoid involvement may enable extraneural propagation and serve as a source of environmental contamination (2–5), raising concerns about prion shedding and persistence.
snip…
Taken together, the data from Algeria and Tunisia suggest that CPrD may be endemic in certain areas. Despite the limited number of reported cases so far, the absence of active surveillance programs in those countries, unlike in Europe for scrapie and bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE), raises the possibility of a higher number of undetected cases. Given frequent cross-border movements and the extensive pastoral systems in which camels roam widely, contact between herds in Tunisia and herds in Algeria is frequent and has possible implications for disease circulation.
CPrD may substantially affect camel health and production, given that dromedaries are long-lived animals with extended reproductive and productive roles and are vital to pastoralist communities in arid regions. Its detection in areas where camels are central to food production underscores the need to understand its epidemiology, transmission, and long-term impact.
The emergence of a new animal prion disease also raises public health concerns. Although only BSE has shown zoonotic potential, its history highlights the necessity of monitoring all animal prion diseases. Long incubation and absence of early clinical markers complicate risk assessment, as exemplified by the decade-long delay between cattle BSE and the variant Creutzfeldt–Jakob disease epidemic in humans (2).
Given the potential implications for animal and human health and the possible socioeconomic impact in regions where dromedaries play a key role, ongoing surveillance and in-depth characterization of CPrD are essential to enhance our comprehension of its epidemiology, host range, and zoonotic potential.
Dr. Amara is emeritus professor of histology and pathological anatomy at the National School of Veterinary Medicine of Sidi Thabet in Sidi Thabet, Tunisia. He is also vice president of the Expert Committee on Animal Health at the National Center for Veterinary Surveillance in Tunisia. His primary research interests include prion diseases in ruminants and dromedaries.
https://wwwnc.cdc.gov/eid/article/32/8/25-1474_article
Identification of Camel Prion Disease in Tunisia: evidence of an emerging prion disease in North Africa
https://proceedings.science/prion-2025/papers?prod_proceedings_papers%5BrefinementList%5D%5Btrack.title.en%5D%5B0%5D=Animal%20prion%20diseases
https://camelusprp.blogspot.com/2026/02/
https://camelusprp.blogspot.com/2026/
Texas Creutzfeldt Jakob Disease CJD TSE Prion Disease 2025
Update as of 10/15/25, NO REPORT TO UPDATE…
https://cjdtexas.blogspot.com/2026/03/texas-creutzfeldt-jakob-disease-deaths.html
https://www.dshs.texas.gov/creutzfeldt-jakob-disease-cjd/creutzfeldt-jakob-disease-cjd-data
US NATIONAL PRION DISEASE PATHOLOGY SURVEILLANCE CENTER CJD TSE REPORT SEPTEMBER 2025
From the first full year of reporting CJD TSE in the US in 2000, where 90 cases of CJD was reported that year, to today, where in September 2025, the number of CJD cases reported in the last full year reporting, which would have been 2024, the number of CJD cases for 2024 was 249 cases. So, from the first full year 2000 CJD cases were 90 cases confirmed in that year, to 2024, where 2024 CJD statistics rose to 249 confirmed CJD cases in a single year. A dramatic increase in deaths, from figures that don’t seem to be dramatic. But thes figures today, they are not from “better surveillance”, that dog don’t hunt no more. They have been saying this for over 25 years, year after year, well it’s time to call it for what it is, Human Transmissible Spongiform Encephalopathy TSE Prion cases are rising, and it’s NOT because of better surveillance, or just a “happenstance of bad luck, that 85%+ of all human cases, sporadic CJD, including VPSPr, just happen spontaneously, no, it’s because of unknown environmental factors, and or iatrogenic factors, imho…terry
US NATIONAL PRION DISEASE PATHOLOGY SURVEILLANCE CENTER CJD TSE REPORT SEPTEMBER 2025
https://prionunitusaupdate.blogspot.com/2025/10/us-national-prion-disease-pathology.html
So, this is what we leave our children and grandchildren?
Terry S. Singeltary Sr.
posted by Terry S. Singeltary Sr. at
11:58 AM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
Subscribe to Post Comments [Atom]
<< Home