Chronic Wasting Disease: Texas Chronic Wasting Disease CWD TSE Prion Progression 2012 to 2026, Positives to date 1282 confirmed

Texas Chronic Wasting Disease CWD TSE Prion Progression 2012 to 2026

Texas currently has 1282 Total Confirmed detentions of CWD.

Total cumulative confirmed CWD Positive detections by year:

	2012	2014	2015	2016	2017	2018	2019	2020	2021	2022	2023	2024	2025	2026	Grand Total
Breeder Deer			5	21	21	45	19	11	56	129	136	415	159	9	1026
Breeder Release Site			1	2	5	7	2	7	1	13	7	24	32	3	104
Free Range	6	1	2	9	5	9	13	17	8	28	10	27	13	3	151
Research Pen											1				1
Grand Total	6	1	8	32	31	61	34	35	65	170	154	466	204	15	1282

Confirmed Detections by County.

County	Free Range	Breeder Deer	Breeder Release Site	Research Pen	Grand Total
Bexar	1				1
Brooks		2			2
Brown			2		2
Cherokee		1			1
Coleman	1				1
Dallam	19				19
Duval		16	1		17
Edwards		9			9
El Paso	37				37
Frio		99			99
Gillespie		25	1		26
Gonzales		10			10
Hamilton		1			1
Hartley	41				41
Hudspeth	24				24
Hunt		426	15		441
Hutchinson	1				1
Kaufman		6	12		18
Kerr		6		1	7
Kimble		35	2		37
Lavaca		5			5
Limestone		9	9		18
Lubbock	2				2
Mason		2			2
Matagorda		1			1
Medina	18	60	38		116
Navarro		2			2
Ochiltree	1				1
Oldham	1				1
Real		8			8
Roberts	1				1
Sutton		30	1		31
Tom Green		2			2
Trinity		8			8
Uvalde	1	171	17		189
Val Verde	3				3
Washington		51			51
Zavala		41	6		47
Grand Total	151	1026	104	1	1282

personal communications TPWD et al…terry

CWD Progression in Texas 2012 to 2026

• 2012

• Free ranging mule deer in far West Texas

• 2015

• Captive WTD breeder in Medina County

• 2016

• Free ranging mule deer in Texas Panhandle

• Free ranging elk in Texas Panhandle

• 2017

• Free ranging WTD in Medina County

• Captive WTD

• Captive Elk on previous positive WTD premises

• Free ranging WTD in Texas Panhandle

• 2019

• Free ranging WTD in Val Verde County

CWD Progression in Texas

• 2020

• Captive WTD in Kimble County

• 2021

• 7 captive breeder facilities positive

• Hunt, Duval, Uvalde, Matagorda, and Mason County

• 303 direct traces

• 2022

• 2 captive breeder facilities and 2 release site positive

• Gillespie, Limestone, and Hunt County

• 81 direct traces

• 2023

• 12 captive breeder facilities and 1 release site positive

• Zavala, Washington, Gonzalez, Hamilton, Frio, Sutton, Brooks, Kimble, Medina, Cherokee County

• 378 direct traces

• Free ranging WTD in Bexar and Coleman County.

CWD Progression in Texas

• 2024

• 7 captive breeder facilities and 2 release sites positive

• Real, Edwards, Zavala, Trinity, Sutton, Medina, Kerr, and Brown County

• 172 direct traces

• Free ranging WTD in Roberts County

• 2025

• 5 captive breeder facilities and 3 release sites positive

• Kaufman, Sutton, Zavala, Duval, Navarro, Limestone, and Tom Green County

• Free ranging detections in Ochiltree and Hutchinson County

• 2026

• 2 release sites positive

• Uvalde and Duval County

snip…

CWD in Texas

snip…

Important TSE facts

• Cooking, rendering, and standard disinfection does

not destroy

• Resistant to formalin, alcohol, heat (incineration), UV light,

microwave radiation, ionizing radiation, normal

autoclaving, etc.

• Bind tightly to some surfaces (plastic and stainless

steel) and remain infectious

• Environmental survival and transmission varies

• Can bind to soil

• Distribution within the animal varies

7Chronic Wasting Disease (CWD)

• Species affected:

• Black-tailed Deer

• Mule Deer

• Moose

• North American Elk

• Red Deer

• Reindeer

• Sika Deer

• White-tailed Deer

• Muntjac

• Hybrids of above species

8Chronic Wasting Disease (CWD)

• Incubation – average 2-4 years

• Symptoms include

• Appetite loss

• Weight loss

• Excessive salivation, difficulty swallowing

• Behavioral changes

• Excessive urination

• Increased water intake

• Neurologic deficits – lack of muscle

coordination and exaggerated wide

posture

• Death often occurs within months of

being symptomatic

Chronic Wasting Disease (CWD)

Transmission:

• CWD prions accumulate in nervous and lymphatic tissues

• Prions are shed in saliva, urine, blood,

feces, soft antler material, and

decomposing carcasses

• Found in all tissues (including muscle)

• Prions accumulate in environment

• Transmitted from animal to animal or

indirectly to the animal from a contaminated environment

• Prevalence increases overtime as more

animals are infected and environment is

contaminated

snip…

Chronic Wasting Disease (CWD)

• Implications

• Impacts on deer populations

• Population declines

• Shift in age structure—fewer mature deer

• Higher mortalities due to other causes—predators, vehicle

collisions, hunters

• Economic losses related to CWD

• Hunting

• Captive breeding programs

• Surveillance and program enforcement

• Unknown long-term risk to human health

• To date there is no indication that CWD can be transmitted to

humans

• CDC recommends not to consume meat from CWD infected deer

• Test prior to consumption

Disease Management

• Control & Biosecurity

• Strategies to restrict/reduce movement of free-ranging and

captive cervids and carcass parts

• Keep deer densities at or below carrying capacity to reduce

contact and environmental contamination

• Monitor and maintain fences

• Clean and decontaminate delivery and transport vehicles

• Clean and decontaminate farm vehicles (cars, ATVs, trucks,

tractors, skid loaders, etc.

Disease Management

• Utilize disposable veterinary equipment and/or decontaminate instruments using 2% sodium hypochlorite (bleach)

• Check bleach expiration date

• Rinse in hot water and detergent Let dry Soak in 2 parts bleach

3 parts water for 1 hour Rinse

• Refrain from sharing equipment between herds (feeders, troughs, chutes, buckets, syringes, etc.)

• Purchase own AI and collection equipment

• Outreach

• Distribute correct, factual information

• Reduce potential economic implications

snip…

Regulatory Updates

• Stay informed with recent rule changes

• Commission meetings held every 3 months

• TAHC Meetings:

https://www.tahc.texas.gov/agency/meetings.html

• TAHC News Releases:

https://www.tahc.texas.gov/news/

• TPWD Meetings:

https://tpwd.texas.gov/business/feedback/meetings/

TAHC Certified Postmortem

Collector

• Complete today’s training

• Recertify every three years (online module available)

• Understand grounds for Maintaining TAHC Certified

Postmortem Collector status

• Personally perform specified work

• Samples must be submitted within 7 days

• Maintain accurate personnel and facility records and

submit facility records promptly to owner/manager for

their archives

• Facility must maintain records for a minimum of 5 years

Who Can Collect Samples?

• USDA Accredited TAHC Authorized Veterinarian

• Certified CWD Postmortem Sample Collector for

appropriate sample collection

• Note: Not authorized for some positive facilities (check

herd plan)

• TPWD CWD check stations

• Note: TPWD check stations not available for trace herds or

positive facilities

• For more information on TPWD surveillance stations

please visit:

https://tpwd.texas.gov/huntwild/wild/diseases/cwd/index.phtml

Diagnosis for Chronic Wasting Disease

• Tissues for postmortem

testing

• Obex

• Medial Retropharyngeal

Lymph Nodes (RLN’s)

• Tissues for antemortem

testing *Practice of

veterinary medicine and can

only be performed by a

veterinarian*

• Tonsil Biopsy

• Rectal Biopsy

• RLN Biopsy

Tests For Chronic Wasting Disease

• Postmortem CWD testing options available from the Texas

Veterinary Medical Diagnostic Laboratory (TVMDL):

• Immunohistochemistry (IHC)

• Enzyme-linked Immunosorbent Assay (ELISA)

• Similarities between tests

• Both require the obex and both MRPLNs

• All samples must be clearly labeled

• Must be shipped overnight

• Always collect any ID with a piece of tissue and place in a

separate container

• Payment for test is directly to TVMDL by the premises owner

Differences Between ELISA and IHC

ELISA

• Obex & Medial

Retropharyngeal Lymph

Nodes submitted fresh

IHC (Trace herds and ESS)

• Obex & Medial Retropharyngeal

Lymph Nodes submitted fixed in

10% formalin

• TVMDL cost - $28.25 for one

tissue; $33.75 for both

tissues + accession fee of

$8.50 per submission

• TVMDL cost - $51 + accession fee

of $8.50 per submission

• Turnaround time is 14-21 days

• Turnaround time is typically 2-5 days

TAHC Sample Collection

NOTE: All fresh tissue samples must be maintained in a cool environment

(refrigerated or on ice) until shipped. They should be shipped cool on ice packs

and not frozen.

NOTE: The Obex & MRLN should be collected regardless of sample condition

(e.g. autolyzed, frozen, etc.) and submitted to the approved labs to comply with

the routine herd surveillance requirements. (PS- Appendix V(10))

NOTE: All samples should be collected and submitted to the lab, irrespective of

the state of autolysis. Approved labs should evaluate the condition of the

autolyzed samples to determine if the samples are of sufficient quality to be

reliably tested or if the samples should be sent directly to NVSL. (PS-Appendix

V(7))

Sample Quality

• Collect all required tissues regardless of sample

condition and submit to the lab

• There may be circumstances when only one tissue

sample can be collected

• Notify TAHC and TPWD immediately

• Explain the reason – severe tissue/carcass decomposition,

destruction of tissues at slaughter, anatomic variation, etc.

• TAHC will determine if the single sample submission is

acceptable

• If the single sample submission is unsuitable or

untestable, then it will be recorded as a missed

sample for exotic herds and/or herd plans

snip…

Every captive exotic CWD susceptible species, 12 months or

older that dies in the state of Texas must be tested until three

complete samples have been reported to TAHC annually.

Additional Resources

• Updated CWD rules:

• 9/16/2025 - TAHC Adopts Rules Changes to Chapter 40

• Complete Texas Animal Health Commission rules and regulations:

• Texas Administrative Code - Chapter 40

• Texas Animal Health Commission:

• www.tahc.texas.gov

• Texas Parks and Wildlife Department:

• www.tpwd.state.tx.us/cwd

• Texas Veterinary Medical Diagnostic Laboratory:

• Education Library - Texas A&M Veterinary

snip…see full report;

https://www.tahc.texas.gov/animal_health/elk-deer/PDF/TAHCCertifiedCWDPostmortemSampleCollectionRecertification.pdf

“Every captive exotic CWD susceptible species, 12 months or older that dies in the state of Texas must be tested until three complete samples have been reported to TAHC annually.”

Mortality Report

https://www.tahc.texas.gov/animal_health/elk-deer/PDF/17-10_ExoticCWDSusceptibleSpeciesMortalityRecord.pdf

i asked AI;

how many exotic deer cwd annually?

There is no precise, aggregate number for how many

exotic deer

(such as Axis, Fallow, or Sika) die from Chronic Wasting Disease (CWD) annually. While exotic species can contract and spread CWD, surveillance primarily focuses on native whitetail and mule deer, where hundreds of cases are confirmed annually, with Texas alone seeing 387 cases in one peak year.

Key Details regarding CWD in Exotic Deer:

Susceptibility: Exotic species like Axis, Fallow, and Red Stag are susceptible, although some, such as Axis and Fallow, may not be as commonly infected as native cervids in certain studies.
Surveillance Limitations: Most testing data is aggregated under "cervids," and surveillance efforts are overwhelmingly focused on whitetail and mule deer.
Infection Source: The movement of captive cervids, including exotic species, contributes to the spread of CWD across states.
Impact on Exotics: While not the primary focus of most reporting, red deer (a European relative of elk) and other exotics are known to be affected in CWD-endemic regions.

The majority of reported data in the United States highlights cases in captive breeding facilities and free-ranging white-tailed deer rather than specifically breaking down the annual mortality rate by exotic species type.

moving along here…

Texas Chronic Wasting Disease CWD TSE Still spreading at 50MPH in some places

this is what happens when you deviate from sound science regulations, by making said regulations weaker for the industry…

“The department has determined that allowing breeder deer to be moved from an exposed location represents an unacceptable risk of spreading CWD to native, free-ranging, and captive deer populations unless a determination based on the particulars of a given circumstance indicates the risk is neither nonexistent or acceptable.

The above proposed discretionary approach to management resulted in TWD [Sic] staff electing to release 13 bucks from a CWD-positive facility onto an immediately adjacent uninfected site, something which under the previous rule, and adhering to previous protocol, they would not have had the authority to do.

The release was done in mid-September of 2025. One month later, one of the bucks released under the disease management plan tested positive for CWD on the release site; and a second buck from the same group a month and a few days after that. There were 11 properties that were directly exposed to the department’s action… exposed by the department’s actions– 11 properties.

The recent documented disease spread due to deviation from the previous rule adopted during the period where the Texas Animal Health Commission was managing CWD with TPWD is incontrovertible evidence that we cannot deviate from those previously established safeguards. To date, CWD has persisted, spread, and increased in prevalence in nearly every area where it has been introduced.“

end

IN Texas, we call it Trucking CWD.

until the movement of all captive cervid is stopped immediately, until a validated and certified CWD TSE PrP Test on live captive cervid is mandatory for all cervid that is to be moved, until the USDA APHIS Captive Voluntary Cervid Herd Certification Program, is enhanced and made _mandatory_ immediately, all other rules and regulations are secondary imo.

the infamous CWD indemnity program for captive cervid holders, imo, should be called for what it is, A CWD ENTITLEMENT PROGRAM FOR CAPTIVE DEER Holders$$$

TPW Commission Meeting CWD TSE PrP Transcript January 22, 2026 TEXAS PARKS AND WILDLIFE COMMISSION

TPW Commission Meeting Transcript January 22, 2026 TEXAS PARKS AND WILDLIFE COMMISSION

Chronic Wasting Disease CWD TSE Prion Science Update 2026 Update

Greetings again Honorable Texas Wildlife and Government Officials,

i am writing you all today with great concern about CWD.

Besides of my concerns with the zoonotic and environmental risk factors of cwd tse prp, i am extremely concerned with the disconnect showing now between TPWD and TAHC with Concerns with CWD management, attempted containment or eradication of CWD. This is terrible. you all must get on the same page, and you all cannot let the captive cervid industry dictate their junk science to you, (which appears what TPWD is doing) and then legislate cwd regulations there from. that’s absolutely why Texas is in this mess with CWD (i have those receipts)…imho!

the last time i updated you all on cwd was;

From: Terry Singeltary <flounder9@verizon.net>

Date: January 17, 2024 at 3:25:26 PM CST

To:

Cc: Subject: TPWD Action CWD Detection and Response Rules Containment and Surveillance Zone Boundaries Recommended Adoption of Proposed Changes January 25, 2024

WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 17, 2024

TPWD Action CWD Detection and Response Rules Containment and Surveillance Zone Boundaries Recommended Adoption of Proposed Changes January 25, 2024

https://chronic-wasting-disease.blogspot.com/2024/01/tpwd-action-cwd-detection-and-response.html

2026 Singeltary submission cwd;

TPW Commission Meeting Transcript January 22, 2026 TEXAS PARKS AND WILDLIFE COMMISSION

JANUARY 22, 2026

snip…

COMMISSIONER GALO: Chairman, if I may.

I agree with you. There’s a lot of people that really do disagree with this plan. And I think that it does change a lot of what we have been doing in the past when we were with Texas Animal Health Commission.

And, as you know, at the last meeting I had some very big concerns. And I left that meeting and I’ve been thinking about a lot that was said there and a lot about this particular rule package.

And if you may favor me, Chairman, I actually put a statement together because I don’t want to… I felt like I left a lot of things unsaid at the last meeting.

So, if you don’t mind, I’m going to read, and maybe that will clarify some of the reasons that people disagree with this rule package.

Texas A&M studies put the total economic output of white-tailed deer hunting in Texas at around $9.6 billion– $4.6 billion for hunters and $5 billion from landowners, encompassing expenditures on licenses, lodging, feed, management, and more.

Additionally, it generates tens of thousands of jobs across the state. Chronic wasting disease is a threat to this vital cornerstone of Texas’ outdoor recreation and its economy. Unfortunately, CWD remains an incredibly difficult disease to manage due to the ease of transmission, the elusive detection in infected animals, its extended incubation period, and its tenacious persistence in the environment once it’s introduced.

Because we now know that there are two primary sources of exposure, one, CWD-infected deer, and two, a CWD-contaminated environment, the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department must continue a rigorous statewide surveillance program, follow effective protocol for action in the instance of detection, and especially prevent its spread pursuant to TWD [Sic]/CWD management plan.

While the TPWD plan to deal with CWD was meant to be dynamic and evolving, TPWD cannot accept the proposed rule which grants, quote– and I quote– “grants TPWD staff explicit authority to develop disease management plans for trace and positive facilities,” end quote; and especially that which relates to the movement of animals out of an infected location.

The department has determined that allowing breeder deer to be moved from an exposed location represents an unacceptable risk of spreading CWD to native, free-ranging, and captive deer populations unless a determination based on the particulars of a given circumstance indicates the risk is neither nonexistent or acceptable.

The above proposed discretionary approach to management resulted in TWD [Sic] staff electing to release 13 bucks from a CWD-positive facility onto an immediately adjacent uninfected site, something which under the previous rule, and adhering to previous protocol, they would not have had the authority to do.

The release was done in mid-September of 2025. One month later, one of the bucks released under the disease management plan tested positive for CWD on the release site; and a second buck from the same group a month and a few days after that. There were 11 properties that were directly exposed to the department’s action… exposed by the department’s actions– 11 properties.

The recent documented disease spread due to deviation from the previous rule adopted during the period where the Texas Animal Health Commission was managing CWD with TPWD is incontrovertible evidence that we cannot deviate from those previously established safeguards. To date, CWD has persisted, spread, and increased in prevalence in nearly every area where it has been introduced.

Unfortunately, because currently there are no known management strategies to successfully mitigate the risk of indirect transmission once an environment has been contaminated with infectious prions, disease prevention is the only prudent recourse.

The best way to manage CWD is to prevent its introduction into new areas and limit its spread. Established safeguards cannot be abandoned. Discontinuation or deviation from prior proven protocol exposes the department to potential liability as CWD will certainly spread to neighboring properties unless established CWD containment procedures are followed.

The department cannot revert to methods from the past which we know caused the spread of this ultimately fatal disease. We must recognize the need for full cooperation and partnership between the Texas Parks and Wildlife Commissioners and the department and its staff, and continue to implement the plans and procedures which were developed and incorporated as the epidemiology and management of this disease became better understood, and until science provides a new and a better plan.

Those are my comments.

snip…see;

TPW Commission Work Session Transcript January 21, 2026 TEXAS PARKS AND WILDLIFE COMMISSION

JANUARY 21, 2026

COMMISSION HEARING ROOM

4200 SMITH SCHOOL ROAD

AUSTIN, TEXAS 78744

COMMISSION WORK SESSION AND EXECUTIVE SESSION

https://tpwd.texas.gov/business/feedback/meetings/2026/0326/agenda/prev_worksession_transcript.phtml

TPW Commission Meeting Transcript January 22, 2026 TEXAS PARKS AND WILDLIFE COMMISSION

JANUARY 22, 2026

COMMISSION HEARING ROOM

4200 SMITH SCHOOL ROAD

AUSTIN, TEXAS 78744

COMMISSION MEETING

https://tpwd.texas.gov/business/feedback/meetings/2026/0326/agenda/prev_commission_transcript.phtm

OFFICIAL MINUTES OF THE 424th COMMISSION MEETING Texas Animal Health Commission May 6, 2025

snip…

Chronic Wasting Disease:

• Positive found in Kaufman County in Calendar Year 2025, trace history to 2021 positive incident, HCP certified herd, herd visit is complete, undecided on disposition of herd

• There were 248 traces closed from 2021, 26 for 2022, 214 for 2023, and 62 for 2024, 19 for 2025

snip…

Item 19 – Consideration and Possible Action on Proposed Rules

Ms. Jeanine Coggeshall presented the rules for proposal:

a) Chapter 32, Hearing and Appeal Procedure, Chapter 40, Chronic Wasting Disease

The CWD HCP is a voluntary federal program administered by USDA for both native and exotic CWD- susceptible herds with guidelines issued under Program Standards. The Program Standards, which includes two components, Part A (Standards for the HCP) and Part B (Standards for State Response), were last updated in May 2019. Texas currently has 81 herds in good standing, which includes two exotic herds and 79 native herds. Participation has significantly declined since 2021 when there were 376 enrolled herds. HCP participation is not required to own exotic cervids or keep native deer captive in Texas. The Program Standards Part B applies to all herds in Texas, not just HCP herds and requires 5-year traces on CWD positives as well as a 5-year post-exposure facility quarantine. Herd plan options

13Summary Minutes of the 424th Commission Meeting – 5/6/2025

are limited and must be approved by USDA to ensure they are compliant with Program Standards. Pairing the repeal of the Herd Certification Program with amendments of CWD rules will provide sensible regulations that work for Texas by reducing the regulatory burden on producers in instances of CWD-positive cases, make CWD hold orders and quarantines optional rather than mandatory by changing language in rule from “shall” to “may,” and removing the requirement that herd plans and traces be set at a minimum of 5 years. It will also allow for individual herd plans, rather than only USDA-approved templates and will repeal CWD surveillance and containment zones entirely. This will reduce regulations on CWD-Susceptible Exotic Cervids by changing surveillance testing from 100% of mortalities to 3 valid tests each year, clarify that surveillance is focused on captive exotic cervids, and allow testing through ELISA testing.

The motion to PROPOSE amendments to Chapter 32, concerning Hearing and Appeal Procedures, and Chapter 40, concerning Chronic Wasting Disease was made by Commissioner Jordan and seconded by Commissioner TJ Klein. The motion passed.

The notice of the proposed amendments will be published in the Texas Register with a 30-day comment period. Comments regarding the proposals may be submitted to Amanda Bernhard, Texas Animal Health Commission, 2105 Kramer Lane, Austin, Texas 78758, by fax at (512) 719-0719 or by email at "comments@tahc.state.tx.us".

b) Chapter 51, Entry Requirements

The proposed amendments clarify that one of three forms of accepted identification is needed for ratites entering Texas and provide simplified entry requirements for exotic fowl, excluding ratites, moving between AZA facilities by allowing entry without PT and AI testing and without entry permitting.

The motion to PROPOSE amendments to Chapter 51, Entry Requirements was made by Commissioner Turner and seconded by Commissioner TJ Klein. The motion passed.

https://www.tahc.texas.gov/agency/meetings/minutes/Minutes_CommMtg_2025-05-06.pdf

TEXAS ANIMAL HEALTH COMMISSION Legislative Appropriations Request for Fiscal Years 2026-2027

snip…

USDA adopted changes to the Chronic Wasting Disease (CWD) Program Standards in 2019. To remain consistent with national standards, and allow Texas producers to participate in interstate commerce, TAHC updated rules that governed the Texas’ CWD Herd Certification Program (HCP). Corrective action response to the 2021 USDA Texas HCP audit findings was accepted and verification of corrective action is still in process, pending USDA action. The response plan agreed to by the USDA and TAHC included conducting detailed reviews of 208 herds that were currently enrolled in the HCP which was completed by September 2023.

snip…

• Chronic Wasting Disease (CWD)

CWD is a is a progressive, fatal, and degenerative neurological disease affecting cervids such as deer, elk, moose and other members of the cervid family. The increase in discoveries of CWD in captive cervids continues to increase resource demands placed on TAHC. In 2023, CWD was detected in 12 deer breeder facilities, an additional 378 facilities were identified as having epidemiologically traced deer associated with a CWD affected facility. Since the beginning of 2024, CWD was detected in 6 deer breeder facilities with an additional 166 epidemiologically traced deer associated with a CWD affected facility.

TAHC resources are also heavily invested in administering the Texas Herd Certification Program, a USDA program with required state participation for the interstate movement of CWD susceptible cervids. In order to abide by the federal regulations, TAHC must adhere to strict CWD management principles state-wide and provide individual assessments to the participants in the program. As the incidents of CWD positive white-tailed deer increase, greater strain is placed on the already limited resources TAHC has to support this program and diverts resources that could be used for other disease programs impacting livestock and fowl , resulting in a decreased ability to protect animal agriculture comprising a significant part of the state’s and nation’s food supply. Page 3 of 9

https://www.tahc.texas.gov/agency/pdf/TAHC_LAR_2026-2027.pdf

Ch. 40 Proposed Amendments The Texas Animal Health Commission (Commission) proposed changes to Title 4, Texas Administrative Code, Chapter 40, “Chronic Wasting Disease.” The Commission proposed amendments to sections 40.1, 40.2, 40.5, and 40.7. The amendments eliminate definitions relating to the Herd Certification Program, change procedures for issuing hold and quarantine orders, and reduce the surveillance testing requirement from 100% of mortalities to three valid tests each year. The Commission proposed the repeal of sections 40.3 and 40.6. These repeals eliminate rules relating to the Herd Certification Program and eliminate existing containment and surveillance zones and remove regulations regarding movement restriction zones.

Capítulo 40 Enmiendas Propuestas

El Texas Animal Health Commission (La Comisión) propuso cambios al Título 4, Código Administrativo de Texas, Capítulo 40, “Enfermedad de desgaste crónico”. La Comisión propuso modificaciones a las secciones 40.1, 40.2, 40.5, y 40.7. Las enmiendas eliminan definiciones relacionadas con el Programa de Certificación de Manada, cambian los procedimientos para emitir órdenes de retención y cuarentena, y reducen el requisito de pruebas de vigilancia del 100% de la mortalidad a tres pruebas válidas cada año. La Comisión propuso la derogación de las secciones 40.3 y 40.6. Estas derogaciones eliminan las reglas relacionadas con el Programa de Certificación de Manada y eliminan las zonas de contención y vigilancia existentes y eliminan las regulaciones relativas a las zonas de restricción de movimiento.

https://www.tahc.texas.gov/regs/summary/2025-05-06_PlainSummary-40.pdf

see; https://www.tahc.texas.gov/regs/proposals.html

CWD Captive Voluntary Cervid Herd Program

https://www.aphis.usda.gov/livestock-poultry-disease/cervid/chronic-wasting/herd-certification

TPW Commission Meeting CWD TSE PrP Transcript January 22, 2026 TEXAS PARKS AND WILDLIFE COMMISSION

Singeltary letter of concern on CWD 2026 submission

https://chronic-wasting-disease.blogspot.com/2026/03/tpw-commission-meeting-transcript-cwd.html

https://prpsc.proboards.com/thread/213/texas-chronic-wasting-disease-science

Chronic Wasting Disease CWD TSE Prion Science Update 2026 Update

CWD, Cattle, Sheep, Pigs, Humans, oh my!

Texas Confirms 116 More Cases CWD, Total To Date 1,215 Positives

TPWD CWD Dashboard 1,215 Total Positive Samples

https://experience.arcgis.com/experience/8f6c27330c444a19b4b57beb7ffabb8b/page/Dashboard#data_s=id%3AdataSource_3-1966d773e34-layer-10%3A2

TPWD CWD TRACKER PAGE AND CWD Dashboard should be updated soon…terry

TEXAS CWD TRACKER PAGE

https://tpwd.texas.gov/huntwild/wild/diseases/cwd/positive-cases/listing-cwd-cases-texas.phtml

Texas Confirms 116 More Cases CWD, Total To Date 1,215 Positives

TPWD CWD Dashboard 1,215 Total Positive Samples

https://experience.arcgis.com/experience/8f6c27330c444a19b4b57beb7ffabb8b/page/Dashboard#data_s=id%3AdataSource_3-1966d773e34-layer-10%3A2

Texas Chronic Wasting Disease CWD TSE Prion Dashboard Update August 2025

SEE NEW DASHBOARD FOR CWD POSITIVES!

https://experience.arcgis.com/experience/8f6c27330c444a19b4b57beb7ffabb8b/page/Dashboard#data_s=id%3AdataSource_3-1966d773e34-layer-10%3A29

Texas CWD total by calendar years

https://chronic-wasting-disease.blogspot.com/2024/12/texas-cwd-tse-prion-positive-samples-by.html

https://tpwd.texas.gov/huntwild/wild/diseases/cwd/positive-cases/listing-cwd-cases-texas.phtml#texasCWD

Counties where CWD Exposed Deer were Released

https://tpwd.texas.gov/documents/257/CWD-Trace-OutReleaseSites.pdf

Number of CWD Exposed Deer Released by County

https://tpwd.texas.gov/documents/258/CWD-Trace-OutReleaseSites-NbrDeer.pdf

CWD Status Captive Herds

https://www.aphis.usda.gov/sites/default/files/status-of-captive-herds.pdf

Texas CWD total by calendar years

https://chronic-wasting-disease.blogspot.com/2024/12/texas-cwd-tse-prion-positive-samples-by.html

https://prpsc.proboards.com/thread/178/texas-game-wardens-conclusion-ghost

https://tpwd.texas.gov/huntwild/wild/diseases/cwd/positive-cases/listing-cwd-cases-texas.phtml#texasCWD

WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 17, 2025

Texas TPWD Confirms 116 More Cases CWD, Total To Date 1,215 Positives

https://chronic-wasting-disease.blogspot.com/2025/12/texas-tpwd-confirms-116-more-cases-cwd.html

Texas CWD TSE Prion Cases Rises to 1099 Confirmed Cases To Date

Texas CWD TSE Prion Cases Rises to 1099 Confirmed Cases To Date

Listing of CWD Cases In Texas

Positive Number CWD Positive Confirmation Date Free Range Captive County Source Species Sex Age

1 7/12/12 Free Range Hudspeth N/A Mule Deer F 6.5

2 7/12/12 Free Range Hudspeth N/A Mule Deer F 4.5

3 12/1/12 Free Range Hudspeth N/A Mule Deer M 4.5

4 12/2/12 Free Range Hudspeth N/A Mule Deer M 5.5

5 12/10/12 Free Range Hudspeth N/A Mule Deer M 4.5

6 12/28/12 Free Range Hudspeth N/A Mule Deer M 3.5

7 12/4/14 Free Range Hudspeth N/A Mule Deer M 4.5

8 6/30/15 Breeder Deer Medina Facility #1 White-tailed Deer M 2.5

9 8/6/15 Breeder Deer Medina Facility #1 White-tailed Deer M 2.5

10 8/6/15 Breeder Deer Medina Facility #1 White-tailed Deer M 2.5

11 8/12/15 Breeder Deer Medina Facility #1 White-tailed Deer M 2.5

12 9/14/15 Breeder Deer Lavaca Facility #2 White-tailed Deer M 3

13 2/4/16 Breeder Release Site Medina Facility #3 White-tailed Deer M 3

14 3/18/16 Free Range Hudspeth N/A Mule Deer M 5.5

15 3/25/16 Free Range Hartley N/A Mule Deer M 3.5

16 3/29/16 Breeder Deer Medina Facility #3 White-tailed Deer M 3

17 4/1/16 Breeder Deer Medina Facility #4 White-tailed Deer F 4.5

18 4/13/16 Breeder Deer Lavaca Facility #2 White-tailed Deer M 3

19 4/13/16 Breeder Deer Lavaca Facility #2 White-tailed Deer M 3

20 4/13/16 Breeder Deer Lavaca Facility #2 White-tailed Deer M 3

21 4/13/16 Breeder Deer Lavaca Facility #2 White-tailed Deer M 3

22 6/29/16 Breeder Deer Medina Facility #4 White-tailed Deer F 1

23 6/29/16 Breeder Deer Medina Facility #4 White-tailed Deer M 1

24 6/29/16 Breeder Deer Medina Facility #4 White-tailed Deer F 1

Showing 1 to 24 of 1,099 entries

*CWD Positive Confirmation Dates marked with * are dates confirmed by Texas A&M Veterinary Diagnostic Laboratory rather than the National Veterinary Diagnostic Laboratory.

*CWD Positive Confirmation Dates marked with * are dates confirmed by Texas A&M Veterinary Diagnostic Laboratory rather than the National Veterinary Diagnostic Laboratory.

https://tpwd.texas.gov/huntwild/wild/diseases/cwd/positive-cases/listing-cwd-cases-texas.phtml

https://tpwd.texas.gov/huntwild/wild/diseases/cwd/positive-cases/listing-cwd-cases-texas.phtml

https://chronic-wasting-disease.blogspot.com/2025/05/texas-cwd-tse-prion-cases-rises-to-1099.html

Texas CWD Update May 2025

WEDNESDAY, MAY 14, 2025

Texas CWD TSE Prion Cases Rises to 1099 Confirmed Cases To Date

Entries CWD Positives

Positive Number CWD Positive Confirmation Date Free Range Captive County Source Species Sex Age

1099 5/5/25 Breeder Deer Gillespie Facility #14 White-tailed Deer M 4.9

1098 4/24/25 Breeder Deer Zavala Facility #23 White-tailed Deer F 7.8

1097 4/24/25 Breeder Deer Zavala Facility #23 White-tailed Deer F 7.8

1096 4/17/25 Breeder Release Site Zavala N/A White-tailed Deer M 10.5

1095 4/3/25 Breeder Deer Kimble Facility #26 White-tailed Deer F 2.5

1094 4/3/25 Breeder Deer Kimble Facility #26 White-tailed Deer F 6.5

1093 4/3/25 Breeder Deer Kimble Facility #26 White-tailed Deer F 3.5

1092 4/3/25 Breeder Deer Frio Facility #24 White-tailed Deer F 1.7

1091 4/3/25 Breeder Deer Frio Facility #24 White-tailed Deer F 1.7

1090 4/3/25 Breeder Deer Frio Facility #24 White-tailed Deer F 3.7

1089 4/3/25 Breeder Deer Frio Facility #24 White-tailed Deer F 5.7

1088 4/3/25 Breeder Deer Frio Facility #24 White-tailed Deer F 5.7

1087 4/3/25 Breeder Deer Frio Facility #24 White-tailed Deer F 7.7

1086 4/3/25 Breeder Deer Frio Facility #24 White-tailed Deer F 3.7

1085 4/3/25 Breeder Deer Frio Facility #24 White-tailed Deer F 3.7

1084 3/19/25 Free Range El Paso N/A Mule Deer M 6.5

1083 3/14/25 Breeder Deer Frio Facility #24 White-tailed Deer M 1.7

1082 2/27/25 Breeder Deer Kaufman Facility #36 White-tailed Deer F 0.5

1081 2/27/25 Breeder Deer Kaufman Facility #36 White-tailed Deer M 1.5

1080 2/21/25 Breeder Deer Gillespie Facility #15 White-tailed Deer M 2.5

1079 2/19/25 Breeder Deer Frio Facility #24 White-tailed Deer M 1.4

1078 2/13/25 Breeder Release Site Medina Facility #3 Elk F 4

1077 1/14/25 Breeder Deer Frio Facility #24 White-tailed Deer F 2.5

1076 1/14/25 Breeder Deer Frio Facility #24 White-tailed Deer M 1.5

1075 1/14/25 Breeder Deer Frio Facility #24 White-tailed Deer M 1.5

1074 1/24/25 Breeder Deer Zavala Facility #23 White-tailed Deer F 1.5

1073 1/24/25 Breeder Deer Zavala Facility #23 White-tailed Deer F 4.5

1072 1/24/25 Breeder Deer Zavala Facility #23 White-tailed Deer M 2.5

1071 1/24/25 Breeder Deer Zavala Facility #23 White-tailed Deer M 2.5

1070 1/24/25 Breeder Deer Zavala Facility #23 White-tailed Deer M 3.5

1069 2/4/25 Breeder Release Site Brown N/A White-tailed Deer F 2.6

1068 1/23/25 Breeder Release Site Sutton N/A White-tailed Deer M 6.5

1067 1/23/25 Breeder Release Site Medina Facility #3 White-tailed Deer M 5.5

1066 1/24/25 Breeder Release Site Hunt N/A White-tailed Deer M 2.5

1065 1/14/25 Breeder Release Site Zavala N/A White-tailed Deer M 5.5

1064 1/14/25 Breeder Release Site Zavala N/A White-tailed Deer M 5.5

1063 1/16/25 Free Range Hudspeth N/A Mule Deer M 8.5

1062 1/7/25 Breeder Deer Real Facility #29 White-tailed Deer F 3.4

1061 12/26/24 Breeder Release Site Brown N/A White-tailed Deer F 3.5

Snip…see full list of CWD Positives;

https://tpwd.texas.gov/huntwild/wild/diseases/cwd/positive-cases/listing-cwd-cases-texas.phtml

https://chronic-wasting-disease.blogspot.com/2025/05/texas-cwd-tse-prion-cases-rises-to-1099.html

December 2024

***> TEXAS CWD TSE PRION POSITIVE SAMPLES BY CALENDAR YEAR JANUARY 1 TO DECEMBER 31 2024 TOTAL TO DATE 1061 CASES CONFIRMED

Texas CWD total by calendar years

https://chronic-wasting-disease.blogspot.com/2024/12/texas-cwd-tse-prion-positive-samples-by.html

May 2024

Texas TAHC TPWD Confirm 132 More Cases of CWD TSE PrP

Jumps from 663 in March, to 795 Positive In May 2024, wow!

https://tpwd.texas.gov/huntwild/wild/diseases/cwd/positive-cases/listing-cwd-cases-texas.phtml#texasCWD

https://chronic-wasting-disease.blogspot.com/2024/05/texas-tahc-tpwd-confirm-132-more-cases.html

TEXAS CHRONIC WASTING DISEASE RISES SUBSTANTIALLY TO 575 CONFIRMED CWD CASES TO DATE

Listing of CWD Cases in Texas

Show 25

Positive Number CWD Positive Confirmation Date Free Range Captive County Source Species Sex Age

575 2023-10-26 White-tailed Deer Hunt Facility #9 White-tailed Deer - Breeder Deer M 2.3

574 2023-10-26 White-tailed Deer Hunt Facility #9 White-tailed Deer - Breeder Deer F 4.3

573 2023-10-26 White-tailed Deer Hunt Facility #9 White-tailed Deer - Breeder Deer F 3.3

572 2023-10-26 White-tailed Deer Hunt Facility #9 White-tailed Deer - Breeder Deer M 3.4

571 2023-10-26 White-tailed Deer Hunt Facility #9 White-tailed Deer - Breeder Deer F 2.3

570 2023-10-19 White-tailed Deer Medina Facility #27 White-tailed Deer - Breeder Deer M 1.2

569 2023-10-26 White-tailed Deer Hunt Facility #9 White-tailed Deer - Breeder Release Site F 3.5

568 2023-10-24 Elk Medina Facility #3 Elk - Breeder Release Site M Unknown

567 2023-10-24 White-tailed Deer Hunt Facility #9 White-tailed Deer - Breeder Deer F 2.3

566 2023-10-24 White-tailed Deer Hunt Facility #9 White-tailed Deer - Breeder Deer F 3.3

565 2023-10-12 White-tailed Deer Hunt Facility #9 White-tailed Deer - Breeder Deer F 0.3

564 2023-09-19 White-tailed Deer Hunt Facility #9 White-tailed Deer - Breeder Deer M 6.2

563 2023-09-19 White-tailed Deer Hunt Facility #9 White-tailed Deer - Breeder Deer F 3.3

562 2023-09-19 White-tailed Deer Hunt Facility #9 White-tailed Deer - Breeder Deer F 3.1

561 2023-09-12 White-tailed Deer Hunt Facility #9 White-tailed Deer - Breeder Deer M 0.2

560 2023-09-12 White-tailed Deer Hunt Facility #9 White-tailed Deer - Breeder Deer F 3.2

559 2023-09-12 White-tailed Deer Hunt Facility #9 White-tailed Deer - Breeder Deer F 2.1

558 2023-09-12 White-tailed Deer Hunt Facility #9 White-tailed Deer - Breeder Deer F 3.2

557 2023-09-11 White-tailed Deer Hunt Facility #9 White-tailed Deer - Breeder Deer F 3.1

556 2023-09-11 Elk Dallam N/A Elk - Free Range M Unknown

555 2023-09-07 White-tailed Deer Kimble Facility #26 White-tailed Deer - Breeder Deer F 6.2

554 2023-09-08 Mule Deer El Paso N/A Mule Deer - Free Range F 4.5

553 2023-09-08 Breeder Deer Hunt Facility #9 White-tailed Deer - Breeder Deer F 4.1

552 2023-09-08 Breeder Deer Hunt Facility #9 White-tailed Deer - Breeder Deer F 13.1

snip...see all of the 575 CWD Positive Cervid in Texas, multiple pages;

https://tpwd.texas.gov/huntwild/wild/diseases/cwd/positive-cases/listing-cwd-cases-texas.phtml#texasCWD

Texas Chronic Wasting Disease CWD TSE Prion To Date 488 Cases

Texas Chronic Wasting Disease CWD TSE Prion To Date as of Monday, May 8, 2023 4:36 PM

Table 1: CWD Positive Samples by Calendar Year (January 1 - December 31)

CWD Positive Area Susceptible Species 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 2021 2022 2023 Total

Duval County WTD - BP 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 2 1 0 3

Frio County WTD - BP 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 1

Gillespie County WTD - BP 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 3 1 4

Gonzales County WTD - BP 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 4 4

Hamilton County WTD - BP 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 1

Hunt County WTD - BP 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 6 50 27 83

WTD - BRS 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 2 3

Kimble County WTD - BP 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 10 0 0 0 10

WTD - BRS 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 2 0 2

Limestone County WTD - BP 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 5 0 5

Lubbock County MD - FR 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 1

Mason County WTD - BP 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 1

Matagorda County WTD - BP 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 1

Northwest Panhandle MD - FR 0 0 0 1 2 2 1 7 3 0 14 0 30

Elk - FR 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1

WTD - FR 0 0 0 0 0 1 3 0 1 0 2 0 7

South Central Texas WTD - FR 0 0 0 0 1 0 1 3 3 1 5 1 15

WTD - BP 0 0 0 5 21 21 45 19 1 46 71 0 229

WTD - BRS 0 0 0 1 2 4 6 1 6 0 8 0 28

Elk - BRS 0 0 0 0 0 1 1 0 0 1 1 0 4

Red Deer - BRS 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 1 0 1 1 4

Sutton County WTD - BP 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 1

Trans Pecos MD - FR 6 0 1 1 5 2 4 2 8 6 7 1 43

Val Verde County WTD- FR 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 2 0 0 0 3

Washington County WTD - BP 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 1

Zavala County WTD - BP 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 3 3

Total 6 0 1 8 32 31 61 34 35 65 171 44 488

BP = Breeder Pen; BRS = Breeder Release Site; FR = Free Range; WTD = White-tailed Deer; MD = Mule Deer

Source Reference Private Email from TPWD et al...terry

The TPWD CWD Tracking Page has NOT been updated in a while, still stuck on 449 CWD Positives, when in reality it's 488 as of Monday, May 8, 2023 4:36 PM, that is why i wrote them for an update...terry

IF you compare Breeder related positives to Free Range positives, most folks will see the problem, unless your in the Business, imo...

Texas CWD Tracking Page

https://tpwd.texas.gov/huntwild/wild/diseases/cwd/tracking/

EXPAND TO SHOW ALL CASES

https://tpwd.texas.gov/huntwild/wild/diseases/cwd/tracking/#texasCWD

Trucking CWD TSE Prion

Chronic Wasting Disease CWD TSE Prion of Cervid

“CWD spreads among wild populations at a relatively slow rate, limited by the natural home range and dispersed nature of wild animals.”

NOW HOLD YOUR HORSES, Chronic Wasting Disease CWD of Cervid can spread rather swiftly, traveling around 50 MPH, from the back of truck and trailer, and Here in Texas, we call it ‘Trucking CWD’…

Preventive Veterinary Medicine Volume 234, January 2025, 106385

Use of biosecurity practices to prevent chronic wasting disease in Minnesota cervid herds

Vehicles or trailers that entered the farm were used to transport other live cervids, cervid carcasses, or cervid body parts in past 3 years in 64.3 % (95 % CI 46.3–82.3) of larger elk/reindeer herds compared to 13.6 % (95 % CI 4.7–22.4) of smaller deer herds.

Snip…

Identifying the exact pathway of initial CWD transmission to cervid herds is often not possible, in part due to many potential pathways of transmission for the infection, including both direct and indirect contact with infected farmed or wild cervids (Kincheloe et al., 2021). That study identified that transmissions from infected farmed cervids may occur from direct contact with the movement of cervids from one herd to another and from indirect contact with the sharing of equipment, vehicles, clothing, reproductive equipment, and potentially through semen or embryos.

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S016758772400271X

Texas is a fine example, see; “Chronic Wasting Disease (CWD) is a fatal neurological disease and can devastate deer populations by silently spreading through direct animal contact and contaminated environments. Without close monitoring, illegal movement of captive deer increases the risk of introducing CWD to areas it is not known to exist, potentially leading to widespread outbreaks which will impact more than just the health of Texas deer.”

https://tpwd.texas.gov/newsmedia/releases/?req=20250227b

“Chronic Wasting Disease (CWD) is a fatal neurological disease and can devastate deer populations by silently spreading through direct animal contact and contaminated environments. Without close monitoring, illegal movement of captive deer increases the risk of introducing CWD to areas it is not known to exist, potentially leading to widespread outbreaks which will impact more than just the health of Texas deer.”

https://tpwd.texas.gov/newsmedia/releases/?req=20250227b

Texas Game Wardens Near Conclusion of ‘Ghost Deer’ Case with 24 Suspects, 1,400 Charges Filed Statewide

Aug. 14, 2025

Media Contact: TPWD News, Business Hours, 512-389-8030

AUSTIN – The Texas Game Warden investigation known as "Ghost Deer" has reached a possible conclusion after two additional suspects turned themselves in on felony charges. This brings the total number of individuals implicated in the case to 24, with approximately 1,400 charges filed across 11 Texas counties.

Ken Schlaudt, 64, of San Antonio, the owner of four deer breeding facilities and one release site, along with facility manager Bill Bowers, 55, of San Angelo, surrendered to the Travis County District Attorney’s Office on charges of felony tampering with a governmental record. Both men allegedly entered false information into the Texas Wildlife Information Management System (TWIMS) to facilitate illegal smuggling of white-tailed breeder deer. They also face more than 100 misdemeanor charges related to unlawful breeder deer activities in Tom Green County.

The "Ghost Deer" investigation has uncovered widespread, coordinated deer breeding violations including, but not limited to: smuggling captive breeder deer and free-range whitetail deer between breeder facilities and ranches, Chronic Wasting Disease (CWD) testing violations, license violations and misdemeanor and felony drug charges relating to the possession and mishandling of prescribed sedation drugs classified as controlled substances.

The suspects charged in the case include:

Evan Bircher, 59, San Antonio Vernon Carr, 55, Corpus Christi Jarrod Croaker, 47, Corpus Christi Terry Edwards, 54, Angleton Joshua Jurecek, 41, Alice Justin Leinneweber, 36, Orange Grove James Mann, 53, Odem Gage McKinzie, 28, Normanna Herbert “Tim” McKinzie, 47, Normanna Eric Olivares, 47, Corpus Christi Bruce Pipkin, 57, Beaumont Dustin Reynolds, 38, Robstown Kevin Soto, 55, Hockley Jared Utter, 52, Pipe Creek Reed Vollmering, 32, Orange Grove Clint West, 56, Beaumont James Whaley, 49, Sevierville, Tenn. Ryder Whitstine, 19, Rockport Ryker Whitstine, 21, Rockport Claude Wilhelm, 52, Orange Cases are pending adjudication in Bandera, Bee, Brazoria, Duval, Edwards, Jim Wells, Live Oak, Montgomery, Tom Green, Travis and Webb counties.

The investigation began in March 2024 when game wardens discovered the first violations during a traffic stop.

https://tpwd.texas.gov/newsmedia/releases/?req=20250206a

That incident led wardens to the much larger network of violations,

https://tpwd.texas.gov/newsmedia/releases/?req=20250227b

resulting in one of the largest deer smuggling operations in Texas history.

About Texas Game Wardens

Texas Game Wardens, within the Law Enforcement Division of Texas Parks and Wildlife Department, are responsible for enforcing laws related to the conservation and management of natural resources and public safety through community-based law enforcement. Their mission is to provide hunting, fishing and outdoor recreation opportunities for the use and enjoyment of present and future generations. Additionally, they play a crucial role in search and rescue operations during natural disasters, exemplifying their commitment to protecting both the environment and the people of Texas.

If you witness a fishing, wildlife or boating violation in progress, please call 1-800-792-GAME(4263) immediately and report it to Operation Game Thief (OGT), Texas’ Wildlife Crime-Stoppers Program. You can also text your tip by sending the keyword TXOGT plus your tip to 847411 or through the Texas OGT App, available for iOS and Android devices. Dispatchers are available 24/7.

https://tpwd.texas.gov/newsmedia/releases/?req=20250814c

THURSDAY, AUGUST 14, 2025

Texas Game Wardens Near Conclusion of ‘Ghost Deer’ Case with 24 Suspects, 1,400 Charges Filed Statewide

https://chronic-wasting-disease.blogspot.com/2025/08/texas-game-wardens-near-conclusion-of.html

TAHC 425th Commission Meeting CWD 1:45:00

* See CWD speakers expressing their concerns with changed regulations…

2:00 hr mark

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=bWawHpdn_7I

TEXAS ANIMAL HEALTH COMMISSION 423rd Commission Meeting CWD Update February 25, 2025

https://chronic-wasting-disease.blogspot.com/2025/02/texas-animal-health-commission-423rd.html

Texas Kimble County Farm Chronic Wasting Disease CWD TSE Prion Approximate Herd Prevalence 12%

SUMMARY MINUTES OF THE 407th COMMISSION MEETING Texas Animal Health Commission

September 22, 2020

http://web.archive.org/web/20201017124040/https://www.tahc.texas.gov/agency/meetings/minutes/SummaryMinutes_CommMtg_2020-09-22.pdf

***> Department records indicate that within the last five years (since January 1, 2020), 30 deer breeding facilities where CWD has been confirmed transferred a total of 8,799 deer to 249 additional deer breeding facilities and 487 release sites located in a total of 144 counties in Texas. <***

https://www.sos.state.tx.us/texreg/pdf/backview/0411/0411adop.pdf

TEXAS BREEDER DEER ESCAPEE WITH CWD IN THE WILD, or so the genetics would show?

OH NO, please tell me i heard this wrong, a potential Texas captive escapee with cwd in the wild, in an area with positive captive cwd herd?

apparently, no ID though. tell me it ain't so please...

23:00 minute mark

''Free Ranging Deer, Dr. Deyoung looked at Genetics of this free ranging deer and what he found was, that the genetics on this deer were more similar to captive deer, than the free ranging population, but he did not see a significant connection to any one captive facility that he analyzed, so we believe, Ahhhhhh, this animal had some captive ahhh, whatnot.''

https://youtu.be/aoPDeGL6mpQ?t=1384

Commission Agenda Item No. 5 Exhibit B

DISEASE DETECTION AND RESPONSE RULES

PROPOSAL PREAMBLE

1. Introduction.

snip...

A third issue is the accuracy of mortality reporting. Department records indicate that for each of the last five years an average of 26 deer breeders have reported a shared total of 159 escapes. Department records for the same time period indicate an average of 31 breeding facilities reported a shared total of 825 missing deer (deer that department records indicate should be present in the facility, but cannot be located or verified).

https://tpwd.texas.gov/business/feedback/meetings/2022/1104/agenda/item.phtml?item=5

On January 21, 2017 a tornado took down thousands of feet of fence for a 420-acre illegal deer enclosure in Lamar County that had been subject to federal and state investigation for illegally importing white-tailed deer into Mississippi from Texas (a CWD positive state). Native deer were free to move on and off the property before all of the deer were able to be tested for CWD. Testing will be made available for a period of three years for CWD on the property and will be available for deer killed within a 5-mile radius of the property on a voluntary basis.

https://www.mdwfp.com/media/254796/2016-17-deer-report.pdf

“It is interesting to note that, in 2001, the State of Texas shifted its deer management strategies toward the same leanings that Kroll has suggested for Wisconsin. In Texas, the change was brought about via heavy lobbying from the high-fence deer ranching industry. This pressure helped convince the Texas Parks and Wildlife to change their regulations and allow private landowners to select the own deer biologists.”

http://www.texasmonthly.com/story/which-side-fence-are-you

Chronic Wasting Disease in Texas

A Real Disease with Proven Impacts

Produced by a coalition of concerned hunters, landowners, & conservationists (last update 08/2023)

Snip…

Since 2012, CWD has been detected in wild deer in just 7 counties in Texas and is only established in the western panhandle and far west Texas.

In that same period of time, captive deer breeders have exposed almost half of Texas counties to CWD.

Deer held in captive breeding facilities are confined to much tighter spaces, and have intimate contact with many more animals on a daily basis. By far the greatest factor in amplifying the spread of CWD is the artificial movement of these animals, shipped in livestock trailers hundreds of miles, far outside of their natural home range, and ultimately released to co-mingle with wild deer.

Each year, Texas captive deer breeders liberate 20,000-30,000 deer from their pens to the wild.

For every deer breeding facility where a CWD positive deer is discovered, an epidemiological investigation is conducted by the Texas Parks & Wildlife Department and the Texas Animal Health Commission to determine how many other deer may have been exposed to the disease and where they have been shipped. Because of the prolific artificial movement of captive deer, one deer with CWD can impact hundreds of other facilities and ranches across the state.

Unfortunately, released deer in Texas are not required to retain any kind of visible identification (an ear tag), and for this reason, the vast majority of released deer cannot be relocated for testing.

As of August 2023, 116 Texas counties have received possibly infected breeder deer that cannot be located, putting more than 140,000 landowners at risk of the disease.

Snip

The state of Texas has been testing for CWD since 2002. Since that time, more than 302,360 captive and free range deer have been tested.

From 2015-2022, more than 127,000 samples were collected from hunter-harvested and roadkill deer. This sampling rate and risk-based distribution provides scientists confidence that they would have detected the disease if it existed at a very low prevalence (<1%) in any given region at the time sampling began.

Snip…

We have learned from other states where CWD has been present the longest, that a constant increase in the prevalence of the disease may lead to a significant decline in the deer population. When disease prevalence exceeds 20%, deer populations have declined by up to 50%. In some areas of Colorado, where CWD has been present since 1985, mule deer abundance has declined by 45% since that time, despite adequate habitat and no hunting ( Miller et al. 2008 ). Similarly, the South Converse Game Unit in Wyoming has documented CWD prevalence exceeding 50% and has seen an approximate 50% decline in mule deer populations.

Snip…

Rural Economies

Deer hunting is the lifeblood of rural Texas. White-tailed deer hunting is by far the most impactful segment of the hunting economy, representing $4.3 billion, according to a recent Texas A&M Study. And while deer breeders represent a very small segment of that economy (less than 5%), they represent one of the greatest risks.

( Full Texas A&M Report )

Real Estate

Rural land prices are largely driven by recreational buyers with hunting as a top land amenity. Without deer hunting, many of these properties will be worth much less.

Conservation Funding

Deer hunters are the largest funders of wildlife conservation in Texas through excise taxes on firearms, ammunition, and gear along with active membership supporting and funding conservation organizations. If deer hunting suffers due to CWD, all wildlife in Texas lose.

Culture & Health

Texas’ native deer herd has iconic value for all Texans. Deer hunting brings families together, creates camaraderie in communities, and serves to connect Texans to nature. There is no better protein than wild, locally harvested, non-GMO and totally organic venison. A healthy deer herd leads to healthy Texans and a healthy and prosperous Texas.

Snip…

This isn't a disease for our lifetime. It's a disease for our grandchildren's lifetime.

- Dr. Bob Dittmar, Former Texas State Wildlife Veterinarian

Snip…

See the full text with maps, graphs, much more, excellent data…

https://bit.ly/3xL16Gm

Since 2012, CWD has been detected in wild deer in just 7 counties in Texas and is only established in the western panhandle and far west Texas.

In that same period of time, captive deer breeders have exposed almost half of Texas counties to CWD.

https://bit.ly/3xL16Gm

As of August 2023, 116 Texas counties have received possibly infected breeder deer that cannot be located, putting more than 140,000 landowners at risk of the disease.

https://bit.ly/3xL16Gm

ECONOMIC VALUES OF WHITE-TAILED DEER IN TEXAS

2022 SURVEY: PART I

http://web.archive.org/web/20230809171452/https://nri.tamu.edu/media/3702/economic-values-of-white-tailed-deer-in-texas-2022-survey-part-i.pdf

Don't mess Texas, or with Mother Nature in Texas, but, seems things went terribly wrong down here in Texas with CWD, be careful what you ask for;

TEXAS CWD STRAIN

“Wow,” he said. “Unlike anything we've seen before.”

The disease devastating deer herds may also threaten human health

Scientists are exploring the origins of chronic wasting disease before it becomes truly catastrophic.

Rae Ellen Bichell

Image credit: David Parsons/Istock

April 8, 2019

This story was published in collaboration with the Mountain West News Bureau, a collaboration between Wyoming Public Media, Boise State Public Radio in Idaho, KUER in Salt Lake City and KRCC and KUNC in Colorado.

SNIP...

One day in late February, in their laboratory in Fort Collins, Colorado, Wagner and Zabel compared the prions from the brains of CWD-infected deer in Texas with those of elk in Colorado. They want to know if the proteins were all mangled in the same way, or not. “If they are different, this would suggest that we have different strain properties, which is evidence as we're building our case that we might have multiple strains of CWD circulating in the U.S.,” says Wagner.

Step one is to see if they’re equally easy to destroy using a chemical called guanidine. The shape of a prion dictates everything, including the way it interacts with an animal’s cells and the ease with which chemicals can unfold it.

“Moment of truth,” said Wagner, as she and Zabel huddled around a computer, waiting for results to come through. When they did, Zabel was surprised.

“Wow,” he said. “Unlike anything we've seen before.”

The prions from the Texas deer were a lot harder to destroy than the ones from the Colorado elk. In fact, the guanidine barely damaged them at all. “We’ve never seen that before in any prion strain, which means that it has a completely different structure than we've ever seen before,” says Zabel. And that suggests that it might be a very different kind of chronic wasting disease. The researchers ran the same test on another Texas deer, with the same results.

Now, these are only the preliminary results from a few animals. Wagner and Zabel have a lot more experiments to do. But if future tests come to the same conclusion, it would support their hypothesis that there are multiple strains of chronic wasting disease out there, all with different origins. That, in turn, could mean that this disease will become even trickier to manage than it already is.

And, Zabel adds, there’s something else. “If it's still evolving, it may still evolve into a form that could potentially, eventually affect humans,” he says.

Zabel is not the only one worried about that possibility.

OSTERHOLM, THE EPIDEMIOLOGIST from Minnesota, is also concerned. He directs the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy at the University of Minnesota, and is serving a one-year stint as a “Science Envoy for Health Security” with the U.S. State Department. In February, he told Minnesota lawmakers that when it comes to chronic wasting disease, we are playing with fire. “You are going to hear from people that this is not going to be a problem other than a game farm issue. You're going to hear from people that it's not going to transmit to people, and I hope they're right, but I wouldn't bet on it,” he said. “And if we lose this one and haven’t done all we can do, we will pay a price.”

If that wasn’t warning enough, he added: “Just remember what happened in England.”

He was talking about mad cow disease. Decades ago, Osterholm got involved in studying the potential for the newly emerging condition — bovine spongiform encephalopathy, or BSE for short — to be transmitted to humans.

At that point, researchers had yet to document a prion disease in animals that could infect people. They did, however, have a few pieces of the puzzle. For one, work in Papua New Guinea had shown that people could transmit prion diseases to each other if they practiced cannibalism, especially of the brain-eating variety. They also knew that BSE was spreading quickly between cattle. Osterholm says he and others worried that the more widespread it became, the more chances it might have to change into something that could sicken people.

“A lot of people thought that it was an overreaction,” says Osterholm. “Then, of course, in 1996, 10 years later, we recognized that in fact transmission had occurred.” Variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, as the illness is called when it appears in human beings, has infected about 230 people worldwide. Osterholm says he feels like he’s having déjà vu, except that instead of mad cow, now it’s chronic wasting disease that’s spreading in animals, with the potential to cross the species barrier to infect humans.

SNIP...SEE FULL TEXT;

https://www.hcn.org/articles/wildlife-the-disease-devastating-deer-herds-may-also-threaten-human-health-science

TEXAS CWD STRAIN

77. Assessing chronic wasting disease strain differences in free-ranging cervids across the United States

Kaitlyn M. Wagnera, Caitlin Ott-Connb, Kelly Strakab, Bob Dittmarc, Jasmine Battend, Robyn Piercea, Mercedes Hennessya, Elizabeth Gordona, Brett Israela, Jenn Ballarde and Mark D Zabela

aPrion Research Center at Colorado State University; bMichigan Department of Natural Resources; cTexas Parks and Wildlife Department; dMissouri Department of Conservation, 5. Arkansas Game and Fish Commission CONTACT Kaitlyn M. Wagner miedkait@rams.colostate.edu

ABSTRACT

Background/Introduction: Chronic wasting disease (CWD) is an invariably fatal prion disease affecting captive and free-ranging cervids, including white-tailed deer, mule deer, moose, elk, and reindeer. Since the initial description of the disease in the 1960’s, CWD has spread to 23 states, 3 Canadian Provinces, South Korea, Norway and, most recently, Finland. While some outbreaks of CWD were caused by transport of infected animals from endemic regions, the origin of CWD in other epizootics is unclear and has not been characterized. Previous studies have shown that there are two distinct strains of CWD. However, the continuous spread and the unclear origin of several outbreaks warrant continued surveillance and further characterization of strain diversity.

Materials and Methods: To address these knowledge gaps, we used biochemical tests to assess strain differences between CWD outbreaks in Michigan, Texas, Missouri, and Colorado, USA. Brain or lymph node samples were homogenized and digested in 50 µg/mL proteinase K (PK). These samples were then run on a Western blot to assess glycoform ratio and electrophoretic mobility. Texas samples were digested in 100 µg/mL PK. To assess conformational stability, brain or lymph node homogenates were incubated in increasing concentrations of guanidine hydrochloride from 0 M to 4 M in 0.5 M increments. Samples were then precipitated in methanol overnight, washed and PK digested in 50 µg/mL PK before slot blotting.

Results: Our results have found significant differences in glycoform ratio between CWD from Michigan and Colorado, but no differences were observed in conformational stability assays. Interestingly, when testing our CWD isolates from Texas to analyse electrophoretic mobility and glycoform ratio, we found that these samples did not exhibit the characteristic band shift when treated with PK, but PK resistant material remained. Additionally, results from our conformational stability assay demonstrate a unique profile of these Texas isolates. Testing of samples from Missouri is currently underway.

Conclusions: Thus far, our data indicate that there are strain differences between CWD circulating in Michigan and CWD in Colorado and provide important insight into CWD strain differences between two non-contiguous outbreaks. We have also identified a unique strain of CWD in Texas with biochemical strain properties not seen in any of our other CWD isolates. These results highlight the importance of continued surveillance to better understand this devastating disease. These results have important implications for CWD emergence, evolution and our understanding of prion strain heterogeneity on the landscape.

http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/19336896.2019.1615197

APHIS USDA Captive CWD Herds Update by State December 2025 Update

CHRONIC WASTING DISEASE CASES

Date of Index Case Confirmation Index Case State County Species Herd Type HCP Enrolled HCP Certified Number of Animals Herd Status

11/1/2025 ukn TX Limestone WTD Hunt No No 132 Quarantine

10/27/2025 3 YR Make WI Richland WTD Breeder Yes Yes ukn Quarantine

10/9/2025 2 YR Female TX Duvall WTD Breeder No No 94+ Quarantine

10/9/2025 2 YR Male PA Franklin WTD Breeder No No 23 Quarantine

10/8/2025 3.5 YR Male PA Huntingdon WTD Hobby No No 2 Quarantine

10/8/2025 3 YR Male WI Portage WTD Fallow Hunt No No 132 Quarantine

9/26/2025 8.5 YR Female TX Navaro WTD Breeder No No 650 Quarantine

9/16/2025 3 YR Female PA Dauphin WTD Breeder Yes Yes 85 Quarantine

9/5/2025 3 YR Male TX Duvall WTD Breeder No No 107+ Quarantine

8/6/2025 Adult Female PA Fulton WTD Breeder No No 14 Quarantine

7/21/2025 4 YR Female PA Bedford WTD Breeder No No 34 Quarantine

Updated December 2025 CHRONIC WASTING DISEASE CASES

6/3/2025 11 YR Female PA Blair WTD Breeder No No 45 Quarantine

6/3/2025 8 YR Female PA Bedford WTD Breeder No No 6 Quarantine

5/16/2025 5.5 YR Female WI Rock WTD Breeder No No ~46 Quarantine

5/14/2025 3 YR Female UT Weber Elk Hunt No No ukn Quarantine

4/30/2025 4.5 YR Male PA Jefferson WTD Hunt No No 36 Depopulated

4/18/2025 10+ YR Ukn TX Zavala WTD Hunt No No 190 Quarantine

4/9/2025 6 YR Male MI Montcalm WTD Breeder No No 86 Quarantine

3/28/2025 3.5 YR Male PA Huntingdon WTD Hobby No No 2 Quarantine

3/28/2025 3.5 YR Female PA Wayne Red Deer Hunt No no 31 Depopulated

2/26/2025 1.5 YR Male TX Kauffman WTD Breeder Yes Yes 400 Quarantine

2/26/2025 3.5 Yr Male PA Lancaster WTD Breeder Yes Yes 105 Quarantine

2/21/2025 4 YR Male CO Montrose Elk Hunt No No 97 Quarantine

Updated December 2025 CHRONIC WASTING DISEASE CASES

2/21/2025 7 YR Female MI Osceola WTD Hunt No No 201 Quarantine

2/10/2025 3.5 YR Male PA Perry WTD Hunt No No 15 Quarantine

1/7/2025 4 YR Female CO Mesa Elk Hunt No No 217 Quarantine

1/7/2025 2 YR Male UT Duchesne Elk Hunt No No 0 No animals

snip…see more;

https://www.aphis.usda.gov/sites/default/files/status-of-captive-herds.pdf

Remember, a quarantined captive CWD Herd, is a ticking environmental time bomb just waiting to go off, think Chernobyl, the longer held in quarantine, the greater chance of environmental spread of CWD. litigation of CWD can take what seems to be an eternity, and CWD TSE Prion saturation into the environment grows each day left in quarantine. …terry

September 22, 2020

Chronic Wasting Disease (CWD):

A new CWD positive breeding herd was disclosed in February 2020 in Kimble County. This herd depopulation was completed in July 2020. Including the two index positive deer, an additional eight more positive deer were disclosed (approximate herd prevalence 12%). Since July 2015 and prior to this discovery, five positive captive breeder herds have been disclosed and four of those are in Medina County. One herd in Lavaca and three herds in Medina County were depopulated leaving one large herd in Medina County that is managed on a herd plan. A new zone was established in Val Verde County in December 2019 as a result of a positive free-ranging White-tailed Deer (WTD). A second positive WTD was also disclosed in February 2020 in the same area.

SUMMARY MINUTES OF THE 407th COMMISSION MEETING – 9/22/2020

Scrapie: The flock identified in April 2016 remains under quarantine in Hartley County.

https://www.tahc.texas.gov/agency/meetings/minutes/SummaryMinutes_CommMtg_2020-09-22

http://web.archive.org/web/20201017124040/https://www.tahc.texas.gov/agency/meetings/minutes/SummaryMinutes_CommMtg_2020-09-22.pdf

“It is interesting to note that, in 2001, the State of Texas shifted its deer management strategies toward the same leanings that Kroll has suggested for Wisconsin. In Texas, the change was brought about via heavy lobbying from the high-fence deer ranching industry. This pressure helped convince the Texas Parks and Wildlife to change their regulations and allow private landowners to select the own deer biologists.”

According to Wisconsin’s White-Tailed Deer Trustee Dr. James Kroll, people who call for more public hunting opportunities are “pining for socialism.” He further states, “(Public) Game management is the last bastion of communism.”

“Game Management,” says James Kroll, driving to his high-fenced, two-hundred-acre spread near Nacogdoches, “is the last bastion of communism.” Kroll, also known as Dr. Deer, is the director of the Forestry Resources Institute of Texas at Stephen F. Austin State University, and the “management” he is referring to is the sort practiced by the State of Texas. The 55-year-old Kroll is the leading light in the field of private deer management as a means to add value to the land. His belief is so absolute that some detractors refer to him as Dr. Dough, implying that his eye is on the bottom line more than on the natural world.

Kroll, who has been the foremost proponent of deer ranching in Texas for more than thirty years, doesn’t mind the controversy and certainly doesn’t fade in the heat. People who call for more public lands are “cocktail conservationists,” he says, who are really pining for socialism. He calls national parks “wildlife ghettos” and flatly accuses the government of gross mismanagement. He argues that his relatively tiny acreage, marked by eight-foot fences and posted signs warning off would-be poachers, is a better model for keeping what’s natural natural while making money off the land.

Dr. Deer Wisconsin Report: Will High-Fence Bias Skew Final Plan?

Categories: Blogs, Daniel Schmidt’s Whitetail Wisdom, Deer News, Featured Tags: antler restricitons, dan schmidt, Dr. Deer, james kroll, James Kroll Wisconsin, qdm, quality deer management, texas hunting, wisconsin deer hunting March 29, 2012 According to Wisconsin’s White-Tailed Deer Trustee Dr. James Kroll, people who call for more public hunting opportunities are “pining for socialism.” He further states, “(Public) Game management is the last bastion of communism.”

OPINION BLOG

These are just two insights into the man who has been asked to provide analysis and recommended changes to Wisconsin’s deer management program. Kroll’s insights are from an article entitled “Which Side of the Fence Are You On?” by Joe Nick Patoski for a past edition of Texas Monthly. If nothing more, the article gives an unabashed look into the mind-set that will be providing the Wisconsin DNR with recommendations on how to change their deer management practices. James Kroll (also known as “Deer Dr.”) was appointed to the Wisconsin “deer czar” position last fall. He was hired by the Department of Administration and instructed to complete a review of the state’s deer management program.

Here’s a sample of the article:

“Game Management,” says James Kroll, driving to his high-fenced, two-hundred-acre spread near Nacogdoches, “is the last bastion of communism.” Kroll, also known as Dr. Deer, is the director of the Forestry Resources Institute of Texas at Stephen F. Austin State University, and the “management” he is referring to is the sort practiced by the State of Texas. The 55-year-old Kroll is the leading light in the field of private deer management as a means to add value to the land. His belief is so absolute that some detractors refer to him as Dr. Dough, implying that his eye is on the bottom line more than on the natural world.

Kroll, who has been the foremost proponent of deer ranching in Texas for more than thirty years, doesn’t mind the controversy and certainly doesn’t fade in the heat. People who call for more public lands are “cocktail conservationists,” he says, who are really pining for socialism. He calls national parks “wildlife ghettos” and flatly accuses the government of gross mismanagement. He argues that his relatively tiny acreage, marked by eight-foot fences and posted signs warning off would-be poachers, is a better model for keeping what’s natural natural while making money off the land.

A trip to South Africa six years ago convinced Kroll that he was on the right track. There he encountered areas of primitive, lush wildlife-rich habitats called game ranches. They were privately owned, privately managed, and enclosed by high fences. He noticed how most of the land outside those fences had been grazed to the nub, used up. “Game ranches there derive their income from these animals — viewing them, hunting them, selling their meat,” he says. “There are no losers.” At his own ranch Kroll has set up a smaller version of the same thing. His land is indeed lush, verdant, with pine groves, an abundance of undergrowth, wild orchids, New Jersey tea, jack-in-the-pulpits, and other native plants. He has also set up a full-scale breeding research center and is one of twenty Texas deer breeders using artificial insemination to improve his herd. “We balance sex and age ratio,” he says. “We manage habitat. We control the population and manage for hunting. I want to leave the deer herd better than it was before we came.”

It is interesting to note that, in 2001, the State of Texas shifted its deer management strategies toward the same leanings that Kroll has suggested for Wisconsin. In Texas, the change was brought about via heavy lobbying from the high-fence deer ranching industry. This pressure helped convince the Texas Parks and Wildlife to change their regulations and allow private landowners to select the own deer biologists.

“That has given landowners more freedom,” Kroll told Texas Monthly. “(However,) You still have to let the state on your land to get a wildlife-management permit.” The key difference here is that 98 percent of Texas is comprised of private land. Wisconsin, on the other hand, consists of approximately 34.8 million acres of land, and 25.5 percent of the state’s 638,000 gun-hunters reported hunting on public land at some point during the season (2010, Duey, Rees).

According to the Wisconsin Realtors Association, more than 5.7 million acres of this land, or 16.5 percent, is publicly owned and used for parks, forests, trails, and natural resource protection. [Note: these statistics do not include the public land used for roads, government buildings, military bases, and college/school campuses.] This 5.7 million acres of public land is owned as follows:

Federal government owns approximately 1.5 million acres (4.4 percent of the state’s land area). Almost all of the federal forestland in Wisconsin is located in Chequamegon-Nicolet National Forest.

State government owns approximately 1.6 million acres (4.6 percent of the state’s land area). The land is managed by two agencies, the Board of Commissioners of Public Land (who manages lands granted by federal government) and the DNR (managing land owned by the state).

County government owns approximately 2.6 million acres (7.5 percent of the state’s land area).

Public land is located in 71 of Wisconsin’s 72 counties, with the most public land located in Bayfield County (464,673 acres). [Note: Menominee County does not have any public land, but 98 percent of the land is held in trust by the Menominee Tribe.] Twenty counties have more than 100,000 acres of public land, while only 12 counties have fewer than 10,000 acres.

What does this all mean? My initial reaction, which is one that I predicted when Kroll was named to the state’s deer trustee position, is that his team’s final recommendations — if implemented — will be heavily skewed toward the state’s larger landowners (500+ acres) and folks who own small parcels in areas comprised mostly of private land.

It is also my prediction that the final recommendations (again, if implemented) will do little, if anything, to improve deer herds and deer hunting on Wisconsin’s 5.7 million acres of public land.

Where does this leave the public-land hunter? “It will suck to be you,” said one deer manager who asked to remain anonymous out of fear for his job. “The resources and efforts will go toward improving the private land sector. This is all about turning deer hunting away from the Public Land Doctrine and more toward a European-style of management — like they have in Texas.”

I do, of course, hope these assumptions are wrong. As with all things in life, we should maintain an open mind to change. Life is all about change. However, change for the sake of change is usually a recipe for disaster. Especially when that change is driven by something more than a sincere desire to manage public resources for the greater good.

As noted yesterday (Dr. James Kroll Report: Is That All You Get For Your Money), I will provide more of my opinions and interpretation on this important issue in forthcoming installments of this blog. Read his full preliminary report here.

http://www.texasmonthly.com/preview/2002-02-01/feature5

http://www.texasmonthly.com/story/which-side-fence-are-you

Texas tries to Legislate CWD TSE Prion From Existence, along with TPWD and TAHC

Texas tries to Legislate CWD TSE Prion From Existence, and how did that work out in the past $$$ it just helped spread CWD to hell and back. You thought mad cow disease was bad, you haven’t seen anything yet. By letting the very industry that helped spread this mad deer disease across Texas and the USA, and abroad, now legislate CWD, while trying to abolish the TPWD and TAHC, is insane, it’s sheer madness…imho! At a time the wild Cervid population is at such a risk from Chronic Wasting Disease CWD TSE Prion here in Texas and across the USA, we just let the captive industry and legislators set the rules and regulations, hell with what science, peer reviewed science, and scientists around the world are telling us…no one wins at TSE Prion Poker$

kind regards, terry

SUNDAY, MAY 04, 2025

Texas Senate Bill 2649 creation of a statewide Chronic Wasting Disease plan

https://chronic-wasting-disease.blogspot.com/2025/05/texas-senate-bill-2649-creation-of.html

SUNDAY, MAY 04, 2025

Texas Senate Bill 2651 establishment of a pilot program to breed deer resistant to CWD TSE Prion, what could go wrong?

https://chronic-wasting-disease.blogspot.com/2025/05/texas-senate-bill-2651-establishment-of_4.html

Texas S.B. 2843 Directs TPWD to conduct a comprehensive study of current measures to control chronic wasting disease (CWD) in deer

Trying to legislate CWD is what got Texas in this CWD mess to begin with, how did that work out$$$ Legislators and Politicians need to stay away and let TPWD and TAHC et try and contain this mess that Legislators and Politicians got us in, called CWD TSE Prion…terry

https://chronic-wasting-disease.blogspot.com/2025/04/texas-sb-2843-directs-tpwd-to-conduct.html

FRIDAY, MAY 31, 2024

Texas Hundreds of deer test positive for CWD on Trophy Ranch

https://prpsc.proboards.com/thread/163/texas-hundreds-positive-trophy-ranch

https://chronic-wasting-disease.blogspot.com/2024/05/texas-hundreds-of-deer-test-positive.html

Texas More deer slaughters scheduled to help contain CWD from breeders

More deer slaughters scheduled

April 26, 2024 Page 4, and page 20

Lone Star Outdoor News

More deer slaughters scheduled

For two deer breeders who have been fighting Texas Parks and Wildlife Department and Texas Animal Health Department, the battle may be winding down.

Rick Young has two breeding facilities on his AAA&J that are more than a mile apart. In August 2022, one of his facilities had one positive test for CWD. The other facility had 21 bucks, all 3-year-olds that were tested in March 2022 and all returned nondetected results for CWD.

"I had a contract to sell those 21 bucks for $152,000," Young said. "They will not let me sell those deer. Today I have only 16 of those bucks. The other five have been killed fighting by the other bucks in that pen. All 5 that died tested negative for CWD."

Young has filed suit against the two departments, but he has received a letter stating TPWD will be coming no sooner than April 22 to kill his deer. On April 19, he obtained a temporary restraining order buying another 14 days before another hearing. TPWD, in its letter to Young, said 13 deer that died at the one facility tested positive for CWD.

snip...

Robert Williams, who has been fighting for more than two years, also faces the killing of nearly 500 deer, after losing a recent legal battle. Williams' struggle has been amplified since he was not allowed to release healthy bucks onto his own property to be hunted, and CWD has spread in his pens due to close contact between the deer, infecting more than 60 deer. However, after more than two years, none of the deer have shown any signs of the disease described by officials and media as ''zombie deer disease." Discussions toward an ultimate resolution are ongoing...

snip...

Deer deaths continued from page 4

Young said he has 50 adult does, 31 older bucks, 16 young bucks and 18 fawns, and based on his and other breeder's sales number, total a value toping $700,000. However, Young said he has been told getting indemnity money from the U.S. Dept. of Agriculture and TAHC, is not available unless he signs a herd plan that not only requires the killing of all his deer, also, endures to heirs, successors and assigns - potentially staying with the ranch forever.

"Only a financially desperate individual or an idiot would sign their herd plan," he said...end

source reference , More deer slaughters scheduled, April 26, 2024 Page 4, and page 20, Lone Star Outdoor News

end

RW TROPHY RANCH, LTD. AND ROBERT WILLIAMS, Appellants V. TEXAS ANIMAL HEALTH COMMISSION; ANDY SCHWARTZ, DVM, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR; AND TEXAS PARKS & WILDLIFE Fourteenth Court of Appeals NO. 14-23-00242-CV

Lawsuit Challenges Texas Animal Health Commission Authority over White-Tailed Deer

Posted on February 5, 2024 by tiffany.dowell

The Fourteenth Court of Appeals in Houston recently ruled on a case regarding the jurisdiction of the Texas Animal Health Commission and the regulation of white-tailed deer to prevent the spread of chronic wasting disease. [Read Opinion here.]

Photo by Acton Crawford on Unsplash

Background

RW Trophy Ranch (“RW”) is a deer breeding ranch in northeast Texas. It consists of a 68-acre deer breeding facility surrounded by a 1,500 acre ranch. RW was certified under the Texas Animal Health Commission’s Texas Chronic Wasting Disease Herd Certification Program (“Program”). The goal of the program is to control the occurrence of chronic wasting disease (“CWD”), a fatal neurodegenerative disease that affects cervid species like deer.

In February 2021, three of RW’s white-tailed deer in their breeding pens died of pneumonia. In accordance with the Program, RW tested the dead deer for CWD. One tested positive. In May 2021, the Texas Animal Health Commission (“TAHC”) issued a Hold Order requiring RW to restrict the movement of all CWD susceptible species on the premises. In June 2021, the TAHC issued a Quarantine Order, ordering that all CWD-susceptible species were to be confined to the premises.

In August 2021, RW tested 49 bucks it wanted to release to its 1,500 acre ranch next to the breeding facility in advance of hunting season. The TAHC responded that RW must agree to a herd management plan before any releases could be made from the breeding facility. RW received two proposed herd plans, both requiring all of RW’s white-tailed deer to be euthanized.

RW filed an appeal of the cancellation or suspension of their Program enrollment. On the notice of appeal, RW’s owner made a handwritten note that RW objected to the herd plan as is and wished to discuss the 49 bucks that RW had tested with clear results. TAHC held a meeting with RW by phone but did not issue a written decision or hold a hearing on this appeal.

RW filed suit in Travis County court in January 2022 seeking a writ compelling TAHC and its Director to provide it with a contested case hearing and a declaration that certain administrative rules exceeded the TAHC and Texas Parks and Wildlife Department (“TPWD”)’s authority. The writ was dismissed, but all parties filed cross motions for summary judgment on the rules claims. The trial court sided with TAHC and TPWD, granting their motion. RW appealed.

Court of Appeals Opinion

The Fourteenth Court of Appeals in Houston affirmed. [Read Opinion here.]

Plea to the Jurisdiction

RW first argued that TAHC and its Director had a mandatory duty to issue a written decision 14 days after the telephone call. RW claimed that the failure to do so denied it the ability to pursue a contested case hearing before the State Office of Administrative Hearings regarding its appeal of the cancellation of its Program status. TAHC responded that RW failed to make the necessary showing to warrant mandamus relief by the court.

The court explained that sovereign immunity protects the State of Texas and its agencies from suit and liability. An exception to that protection, however, allows suits to require state officials to comply with statutory or constitutional provisions that are not prohibited by sovereign immunity. To fall within this exception, a plaintiff’s suit must allege and prove that the state officer acted without legal authority or failed to perform a purely ministerial act. If the plaintiff’s complaint involves an act of the officer’s discretion, immunity is not waived. A law is deemed ministerial when it “clearly spells out the duty to be performed by the official with sufficient certainty that nothing is left to the exercise of discretion.” Additionally, to obtain mandamus relief, there must also be a demand for performance and subsequent refusal by the state official.

At issue was Rule 40.3(h). Note, this rule has since been repealed, but was applicable to this case.

The court held that RW failed to comply with section (1) as it did not state “all of the facts and reasons upon which the herd owner relies to show that the reasons for the action are incorrect or do not support the action.” Although RW filed an appeal, it wrote on the Notice of Appeal that it objected to the plan as is and wanted to discuss the 49 bucks. This, the court held, indicated RW was not seeking to appeal the cancellation of its Program status or the specific reason given for the cancellation. Instead, it sought to discuss a separate issue–the release of the 49 bucks. Thus, because the substance of the appeal was not the cancellation of its Program status, it did not proceed under Rule 40.3(h), and RW cannot rely on this rule in support of its claim for mandamus relief.

Rules Challenge

RW set forth four arguments related to the scope of TAHC and TPWD’s authority under rules applicable at the time.

1. TAHC statutory authority is over livestock.

First, RW argues that the TAHC’s authority is limited to “livestock” and white-tailed deer are “wildlife” rather than livestock. White-tailed deer are not included in the Texas Agriculture Code’s definition of “animal” or “livestock.” In light of this, RW claims that Rule 40.2 allows TAHC to take certain actions exceeding its statutory authority including (1) ordering CWD-positive herds to be quarantined until all herd plan requirements are met; (2) ordering herds remain under quarantine for 5 years from past exposure to a CWD-positive or CWD-exposed animal and until such time herd plan requirements are met; and (3) ordering that a herd plan require all CWD-exposed and CWD-suspect animals be euthanized.

RW cited to several provisions of the agriculture code expressly granting TAHC jurisdiction over “livestock” but not “wildlife” in support of its argument. The court, however, noted that RW ignored Texas Agriculture Code Section 161.041 which provides that the TAHC “may act to eradicate or control any disease or agent of transmission for any disease that effects livestock, exotic livestock, domestic fowl, or exotic fowl, regardless of whether the disease is communicable even if the agent of transmission is an animal species that is not subject to the jurisdiction of the commission.” The statute allows the TAHC to adopt “any rules necessary to carry out the purposes” of this section. Giving these provisions their plain meanings, the Court held that the TAHC has the authority to require herd plans, quarantine, and euthanizing of white-tailed deer. RW’s first argument was overruled.

2. TAHC authority to require herd plans.

Next, RW argued that TAHC lacks authority to enforce a federal program in Texas because no cooperative program exists with the federal government. RW based this argument on 4 TAC 40.2, which states that all CWD-positive and trace herds are to be restricted until all herd plan requirements are satisfied and such requirements may incorporate certain federal standards or testing requirements. The court disagreed, noting that, as discussed above, the legislature gave the TAHC broad discretion to control any disease or agent of transmission. Herd plan requirements with respect to controlling CWD fall within this broad authority. RW’s second argument was overruled.

3. TAHC authority to prevent release of animals subject to quarantine to contiguous property under same ownership.

RW argued that that TAHC could not prohibit it from releasing its white-tailed deer from the breeding facility to its contiguous ranch. RW relied on Texas Agric. Code Section 161.054 which states that the TAHC “may not adopt a rule that prohibits a person from moving animals…owned by that person within unquarantined contiguous lands owned or controlled by that person.”

The court noted, however, that the statute RW relies upon prohibits movement of animals between unquarantined contiguous lands. Here, however, the breeding facility was subject to a quarantine order, and there was no indication in the record that it was lifted. Thus, the statute did not apply. RW’s third argument was overruled.

4. TAHC reliance on TPWD rules.

Here, RW essentially made the same arguments offered in its first issue, but this time to challenge TPWD rules. Because the court already overruled the arguments above, the fourth issue was overruled.

What Happens Next?

The deadline to appeal has not yet passed, so RW could still decide to seek review from the Texas Supreme Court.

Key Takeaways

Although this case offered a number of procedural issues, there are a couple of key takeaways to consider. First, the TAHC does have authority to pass rules related to white-tailed deer even though they are wildlife rather than livestock pursuant to TAHC’s authority to prevent the spread of disease that affects livestock. Second, it offers a good reminder about ensuring all technical rules are followed when challenging an agency decision. Here, the rules RW sought to rely upon regarding a written ruling and the subsequent appeals process were unavailable because of how RW framed the issue in the handwritten notes on the appeal document.

https://agrilife.org/texasaglaw/2024/02/05/lawsuit-challenges-texas-animal-health-commission-authority-over-white-tailed-deer/

Affirmed and Memorandum Opinion filed January 18, 2024.

In The Fourteenth Court of Appeals NO. 14-23-00242-CV

RW TROPHY RANCH, LTD. AND ROBERT WILLIAMS, Appellants V. TEXAS ANIMAL HEALTH COMMISSION; ANDY SCHWARTZ, DVM, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR; AND TEXAS PARKS & WILDLIFE

DEPARTMENT, Appellees On Appeal from the 345th District Court Travis County, Texas

Trial Court Cause No. D-1-GN-22-000039 M E M O R A N D U M O P I N I O N

This appeal arises from certain administrative agency actions taken to stop the spread of chronic wasting disease among white-tailed deer bred and owned by appellants RW Trophy Ranch, Ltd. and Robert Williams (together, “RW Trophy”). After these administrative actions were implemented, RW Trophy sued the Texas Animal Health Commission (“TAHC”), the TAHC executive director Andy Schwartz, and the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department (“TPWD”), challenging

2

certain agency rules and seeking a petition for writ of mandamus. The trial court granted the TAHC’S and Schwartz’s plea to the jurisdiction and the agencies’ summary judgment motions; RW Trophy filed this appeal. For the reasons below, we affirm.

BACKGROUND RW Trophy Ranch is a deer breeding enterprise in northeast Texas consisting of a 68-acre breeding facility surrounded by a 1,500-acre ranch....snip...see;

https://search.txcourts.gov/SearchMedia.aspx?MediaVersionID=f0980de2-b801-4f24-bb9a-bacc0ad09b31&MediaID=2754c709-a4da-46c6-b9a5-c5f72e0224cf&coa=%22%20+%20this.CurrentWebState.CurrentCourt%20+%20@%22&DT=Opinion

THURSDAY, MARCH 07, 2024

Texas TPWD CWD Cases Jump to 663 Confirmed To Date

https://chronic-wasting-disease.blogspot.com/2024/03/texas-tpwd-cwd-cases-jump-to-663.html

FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 16, 2024

Texas TPWD CWD TSE Prion Positives Jump To 637 Confirmed Cases To Date

https://chronic-wasting-disease.blogspot.com/2024/02/texas-tpwd-cwd-tse-prion-positives-jump.html

FRIDAY, JANUARY 05, 2024

Texas CWD Cases Mount, 624 documented cases statewide, with 181 cases reported in 2023 alone

https://chronic-wasting-disease.blogspot.com/2024/01/texas-cwd-cases-mount-624-documented.html

FRIDAY, DECEMBER 08, 2023

TEXAS CWD TSE PRION DIRE CONSEQUENCES ARE HERE!

https://chronic-wasting-disease.blogspot.com/2023/12/texas-cwd-tse-prion-dire-consequences.html

WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 01, 2023

TEXAS CHRONIC WASTING DISEASE RISES SUBSTANTIALLY TO 575 CONFIRMED CWD CASES TO DATE

https://chronic-wasting-disease.blogspot.com/2023/11/texas-chronic-wasting-disease-rises.html

MONDAY, MAY 15, 2023

TAHC Chapter 40, Chronic Wasting Disease and Scrapie Chapter 60, Singeltary Comment Submission

https://transmissiblespongiformencephalopathy.blogspot.com/2023/05/tahc-chapter-40-chronic-wasting-disease.html

THURSDAY, APRIL 27, 2023

TEXAS REPUBLICAN SB 1372 TAXPAYERS TO PAY FOR GAME FARMS CWD DEPOPULATION

https://chronic-wasting-disease.blogspot.com/2023/04/texas-republican-sb-1372-taxpayers-to.html

***> TEXAS HISTORY OF CWD <***

Singeltary telling TAHC, that CWD was waltzing into Texas from WSMR around Trans Pecos region, starting around 2001, 2002, and every year, there after, until New Mexico finally shamed TAHC et al to test where i had been telling them to test for a decade. 2012 cwd was detected first right there where i had been trying to tell TAHC for 10 years.

***> Singeltary on Texas Chronic Wasting Disease CWD TSE Prion History <***

http://chronic-wasting-disease.blogspot.com/2017/08/texas-chronic-wasting-disease-cwd-tse.html

FRIDAY, JULY 15, 2022

Texas Chronic Wasting Disease CWD TSE Prion Positives Increase By 8 to 369 TOTAL Confirmed To Date

https://chronic-wasting-disease.blogspot.com/2022/07/texas-chronic-wasting-disease-cwd-tse.html

MONDAY, AUGUST 01, 2022

TEXAS Letter from Trophy Ranch to Governor Abbott about CWD TSE Prion

https://chronic-wasting-disease.blogspot.com/2022/08/texas-letter-from-trophy-ranch-to.html

Proposed Amendments to CWD Zone Rules

Your opinions and comments have been submitted successfully.

Thank you for participating in the TPWD regulatory process.

https://tpwd.texas.gov/business/feedback/public_comment/proposals/202208_cwd.phtml

THURSDAY, AUGUST 04, 2022

Texas Proposed Amendments to CWD Zone Rules Singeltary Submission

https://chronic-wasting-disease.blogspot.com/2022/08/texas-proposed-amendments-to-cwd-zone.html

Governor Abbott on HOW TO LEGISLATE SPREADING CWD TO HELL AND BACK IN TEXAS $$$

i picked up on something that was said, there were several folks complaining that the breeders were getting picked on, and someone said something about trying to 'legislate' there way out of this. folks, this is terrible, i have seen this in other states, and it just spreads cwd even more. hell, it happened right here in Texas in the early days, that's why we are where were at now, you cannot let a bunch of Austin Legislative Socialites regulate CWD, just look what happened in Wisconsin. but i bet this attempted swaying of regulatory power shift from TPWD et al to the Texas Legislature in Austin is happening as we speak. we can't let this happen...

SUNDAY, JANUARY 22, 2017

Texas 85th Legislative Session 2017 Chronic Wasting Disease CWD TSE Prion Cervid Captive Breeder Industry

http://chronic-wasting-disease.blogspot.com/2017/01/texas-85th-legislative-session-2017.html

FRIDAY, JANUARY 27, 2017

TEXAS, Politicians, TAHC, TPWD, and the spread of CWD TSE Prion in Texas

http://chronic-wasting-disease.blogspot.com/2017/01/texas-politicians-tahc-tpwd-and-spread.html

SUNDAY, MAY 14, 2017

85th Legislative Session 2017 AND THE TEXAS TWO STEP Chronic Wasting Disease CWD TSE Prion, and paying to play $$$

http://chronic-wasting-disease.blogspot.com/2017/05/85th-legislative-session-2017-and-texas.html

Powerful Abbott appointee's lobbying sparks blowback in Legislature

In an ironic twist for Gov. Greg Abbott, who has made ethics reform an urgent political priority, the Texas House is taking aim at what critics call a "pay to play" culture among his appointees.

BY JAY ROOT MAY 12, 2017 12 AM

Houston billionaire Dan Friedkin is chairman of the Texas Parks and Wildlife Commission.

Texas Parks and Wildlife Commission

When Gov. Greg Abbott tapped one of his top campaign donors to become chairman of the Texas Parks and Wildlife Commission, he didn’t get a part-time appointee who would merely draft rules and implement conservation laws passed by the Legislature.

In Dan Friedkin, the governor got a Houston billionaire — with a team of privately funded lobbyists — willing to use his influence to ensure his wildlife interests are taken into account by the Legislature before they pass those laws, interviews and records show.

On the receiving end of that influence, and not in a happy way, is state Rep. Chris Paddie, R-Marshall. Paddie said a lobbyist working for Friedkin’s business empire, which includes a massive South Texas hunting ranch, has been working against his deer breeder management bill, which many large ranchers oppose. The state Parks and Wildlife Department oversees deer breeding regulations in Texas.

“Many times these appointees are well-heeled, very influential people,” Paddie said. “Overall, I feel that it’s inappropriate for an appointee of a board or commission to have personal lobbyists lobbying on issues related to that board or commission.”

Under Texas law, state agencies are barred from lobbying the Legislature. But the powerful people who oversee them aren’t.

If Paddie and dozens of his colleagues get their way, that practice soon will be a Class A misdemeanor.

Last weekend, Paddie attached a ban on appointee lobbying — which would apply to any issues intersecting with their state responsibilities — to an ethics bill that already had powerful friends of the governor in its crosshairs. The provision was adopted unanimously and the bill sailed out of the Texas House on a 91-48 vote Saturday.

The ethics bill, authored by Rep. Lyle Larson, R-San Antonio, would bar big campaign donors from getting appointed by governors in the first place. Anyone who contributed over $2,500 would be barred from serving on state boards and commissions.

Larson pointed to news articles documenting the amount of campaign money appointees have collectively given governors. Last year the San Antonio Express-News calculated that Abbott had received nearly $9 million from people he’s picked for appointed office; before that, a widely cited report from Texans for Public Justice found former Gov. Rick Perry had received $17 million from his own appointees.

Larson said 20 years from now, Texans will be reading the same stories about a future governor unless the Legislature does something about it now.

“We’ve read that article for the last three decades,” Larson said during a brief floor speech. “This is your opportunity to say, 'We need to stop this.' The most egregious ethics violation we’ve got in the state is the pay to play in the governor’s office.”

A prodigious fundraiser, Abbott has put plenty of big donors on prestigious boards and commissions. On the Parks and Wildlife Commission alone, he has installed three mega-donors — pipeline mogul Kelcy Warren, who’s given Abbott more than $800,000 over his statewide political career; Houston businessman S. Reed Morian, who has given $600,000; and Friedkin, who personally donated more than $700,000 — while his Gulf States Toyota PAC gave Abbott another $100,000, according to Ethics Commission records.

Passage of Larson’s HB 3305 represents an ironic twist for Abbott, who for the second session in a row has made ethics reform an urgent political priority — resulting in a bill that's now taking aim at his gubernatorial appointments. Abbott, who has made a habit of ignoring tough questions, hasn't made any public statements about the bill, and his office did not respond to multiple requests for comment.

Friedkin — whose wealth is estimated at $3.4 billion by Forbes — is the owner and CEO of Gulf States Toyota, founded in 1969, which has had the exclusive rights to distribute new Toyotas in Texas and four nearby states. He’d also been a mega-donor to former Gov. Rick Perry, who first appointed Friedkin to the Parks and Wildlife Commission in 2005. Abbott made Friedkin chairman of the commission in 2015.

Requests for comment from Friedkin's office went unanswered.

In addition to his public role as parks and wildlife chairman, a perch that gives him significant influence over deer management issues, Friedkin has private wildlife interests. He owns the sprawling Comanche Ranch in South Texas, according to published news accounts.

The January 2014 edition of Texas Wildlife, published by the Texas Wildlife Association, described Friedkin’s Comanche Ranch as “privately owned and privately hunted” and said it’s “in the business to produce as many trophy bucks as possible, without damaging the native habitat.”

The association, which advocates for private landowners and hunting rights, has locked horns with deer breeding interests at Parks and Wildlife and the Capitol. They compete against each other in the lucrative trophy deer hunting market — and the battle between them perennially spills into the rule-making process at the Parks and Wildlife Commission.

One of their battles centers on how captive deer are tagged so that game wardens and others can distinguish them from native deer. Current law requires a combination of tags and tattoos, and the ranchers and large landowners want to keep it that way. The breeders, meanwhile, favor tagging deer with microchips, which they contend are more accurate and foolproof.

The Wildlife Association said in a Facebook post that removing visible tag or tattoo requirements and allowing microchip tracking “creates real biosecurity risks and blurs ethical lines in the hunting community, as captive deer breeders are allowed to transport and release these animals to be co-mingled with pasture-born deer.” Proponents of the current system say tough rules on breeders are needed to keep out imported deer that may carry Chronic Wasting Disease, which has been found in Texas.

On the other side of the issue is the Texas Deer Association, which represents breeder interests. Executive Director Patrick Tarlton said opposition to his $1.6 billion industry stems less from environmental and health concerns and more from wealthy ranch owners who want to boost profits from trophy-seeking hunters. He notes that Chronic Wasting Disease has been found in both free range and captive deer.

Paddie sided with the breeders by filing House Bill 2855, which would allow breeders to track their deer with microchips instead of relying on physical tags that they say can be torn off.

No one identifying themselves as a Friedkin corporate lobbyist opposed the deer breeding bills during public hearings, according to House and Senate committee records published online.

Behind the scenes, it was a different story.

Paddie said his chief of staff reached out to Laird Doran, one of several lobbyists for Friedkin’s Gulf States Toyota, after hearing that he was trying to convince other legislators to help defeat Paddie's deer microchip bill.

“My chief called him and said, 'Hey, if you’ve got a problem with our bill why aren’t you talking to us?’ ” Paddie said. “He said he represented the Friedkin Group when that happened.”

According to an email from an aide to Sen. Craig Estes, R-Wichita Falls, who is carrying the deer breeding bill in the Senate, Doran also identified himself as a representative of the “Friedkin Group.” That’s the name of the consortium that contains Friedkin's Gulf States Toyota, according to the company’s Linked-In page. He told Estes’ aide that the Friedkin group was opposed to any bill that would “remove requirements for (deer) ear tags,” the senator’s office confirmed.

It’s not clear exactly which Friedkin interests Doran was advancing. Doran is registered at the Texas Ethics Commission with a single entity — Gulf States Toyota — and the agency has no record of a lobbyist working for an entity or individual with the name Friedkin in it, the commission confirmed Wednesday afternoon.

However, Doran checked a variety of non-automotive subject areas in which he is lobbying during this legislative session on behalf of Friedkin’s lucrative distributorship, including “animals,” “parks & wildlife,” “state agencies, boards & commissions,” “environment” and more, his detailed lobby disclosures show.

Doran, director of government relations and senior counsel at the Friedkin Group, did not return phone and email messages left by The Texas Tribune.

Estes said he didn’t have a problem with a governor's appointee engaging in lobbying on issues that affected their private interests, as long as they keep that separate from their state roles.

“I don’t think they should be barred from expressing their views as long as they’re careful to say these are my views, not the views of the agency I’m representing,” Estes said.

But Tarlton, the deer association director, said Friedkin’s use of lobbyists to oppose deer breeders in the Legislature gives the breeders' opponents a huge advantage.

“I think that if the commissioner of Texas Parks and Wildlife is actively lobbying against an industry which his department directly oversees, it absolutely sets up an unfair and closed system of government,” Tarlton said. “The commission is supposed to be the unbiased and equitable oversight for everything wildlife.”

Paddie hopes his amendment to Larsen's ethics bill will even the playing field. He referred to the wealthy Parks and Wildlife chairman (see the 2:29:00 mark in this recorded exchange) when he tacked the appointee-lobbying provision onto Larson’s bill.

Paddie said he’s not singling out anyone. He said it would apply to other powerful gubernatorial appointees in a position to do the same.

“I could have named any number of examples as far as the agencies in particular,” Paddie said. “I want to stop it if anyone serving on any agency is doing this.”

Ryan Murphy contributed to this report.

Disclosure: The Texas Wildlife Association, Texas Parks and Wildlife Department and Gulf States Toyota have been financial supporters of The Texas Tribune. A complete list of Tribune donors and sponsors is available here.

https://www.texastribune.org/2017/05/12/powerful-abbott-appointees-lobbying-sparks-blowback-legislature/

TUESDAY, AUGUST 02, 2016

TEXAS TPWD Sets Public Hearings on Deer Movement Rule Proposals in Areas with CWD Rule

Terry S. Singeltary Sr. comment submission

http://chronic-wasting-disease.blogspot.com/2016/08/texas-tpwd-sets-public-hearings-on-deer.html

SUNDAY, MAY 22, 2016

TEXAS CWD DEER BREEDERS PLEA TO GOVERNOR ABBOTT TO CIRCUMVENT TPWD SOUND SCIENCE TO LET DISEASE SPREAD

http://chronic-wasting-disease.blogspot.com/2016/05/texas-cwd-deer-breeders-plea-to.html

Wednesday, May 04, 2016

TPWD proposes the repeal of §§65.90 -65.94 and new §§65.90 -65.99 Concerning Chronic Wasting Disease - Movement of Deer

Singeltary Comment Submission

http://chronic-wasting-disease.blogspot.com/2016/05/tpwd-proposes-repeal-of-6590-6594-and_4.html

Terry S. Singeltary Sr. Your opinions and comments have been submitted successfully. Thank you for participating in the TPWD regulatory process.

Wednesday, October 28, 2015

Interim Chronic Wasting Disease Response Rules Comment online through 07:00 a.m. November 5, 2015

http://chronic-wasting-disease.blogspot.com/2015/10/interim-chronic-wasting-disease.html

SUNDAY, AUGUST 23, 2015

Subject: Chronic Wasting Disease CWD TSE Prion and how to put lipstick on a pig and take her to the dance in Texas

http://chronic-wasting-disease.blogspot.com/2015/08/tahc-chronic-wasting-disease-cwd-tse.html

Texas 84th Legislative Session Sunday, December 14, 2014

*** TEXAS 84th Legislature commencing this January, deer breeders are expected to advocate for bills that will seek to further deregulate their industry

http://chronic-wasting-disease.blogspot.com/2014/12/texas-84th-legislature-commencing-this.html

TUESDAY, DECEMBER 16, 2014

Texas 84th Legislature 2015 H.R. No. 2597 Kuempel Deer Breeding Industry TAHC TPWD CWD TSE PRION

http://chronic-wasting-disease.blogspot.com/2014/12/texas-84th-legislature-2015-hr-no-2597.html

TAHC Chapter 40, Chronic Wasting Disease Terry Singeltary Comment Submission

https://chronic-wasting-disease.blogspot.com/2021/08/tahc-chapter-40-chronic-wasting-disease.html

Research Project: Elucidating the Pathobiology and Transmission of Transmissible Spongiform Encephalopathies Location: Virus and Prion Research Title: Exploring the possibility of CWD transmission through artificial insemination of semen from CWD positive bucks

Author item Cassmann, Eric item Greenlee, Justin

Submitted to: North American Deer Farmer Publication Type: Trade Journal Publication Acceptance Date: 7/1/2022 Publication Date: 7/20/2022 Citation: Cassmann, E.D., Greenlee, J.J. 2022.

Exploring the possibility of CWD transmission through artificial insemination of semen from CWD positive bucks.

North American Deer Farmer. p. 107-109.

Interpretive Summary: Technical Abstract: Artificial insemination is a popular method for herd management and reproduction in the cervid farming industry. There are numerous benefits including increased access to superior genetics, convenience, and increased farm revenue. In this article, we summarize the research that is underway to determine if semen from a CWD infected buck can transmit the disease. Some research has already been performed on the reproductive transmission of CWD in cervids. Scientists from Colorado State University used Muntjac deer to demonstrate that CWD positive does could transmit CWD to their fawns (1). In the study, Muntjac does were bred to CWD negative bucks. At the time of breeding, does were either in the early or late stage of CWD infection. Fawns from both doe groups were positive for CWD. More recent laboratory experiments on semen from CWD positive bucks have demonstrated the presence of CWD prions (2).

Researchers used an amplification technique called PMCA (protein misfolding cyclic amplification). The technique amplifies low levels of CWD prions to a point where conventional antibody methods can detect them. The caveat to the discovery of CWD prions in semen is that we’re unsure if the amount of CWD prions in semen is biologically relevant. In other words, is the level of CWD prions in semen sufficient to be infectious and cause disease in deer? In our present study, we are trying to answer that question. We obtained semen from a CWD positive buck. The semen was confirmed to be PMCA positive. For the study, we used the transcervical insemination method in three does. As of June 19th, a single fawn was born. Shortly after birth the fawn was separated to prevent environment CWD exposure. We are assessing both the does and the fawn for the development of CWD. The experiment is expected to last several years, and periodic sampling will help monitor progress. A second phase of the study will investigate the absolute susceptibility of white-tailed deer does to CWD after transcervical and/or vaginal exposure to large amounts of CWD prions. We plan to expose two does to brain suspension from a CWD positive deer. These does will also be monitored long term for the development of disease. If these does remain negative, it would indicate that CWD transmission to the dam is highly unlikely via reproductive tract exposure.

https://www.ars.usda.gov/research/publications/publication/?seqNo115=395853

TUESDAY, DECEMBER 31, 2019

In Vitro detection of Chronic Wasting Disease (CWD) prions in semen and reproductive tissues of white tailed deer bucks (Odocoileus virginianus TEXAS CWD, Have you been ThunderStruck, deer semen, straw bred bucks, super ovulation, and the potential TSE Prion connection, what if?

https://chronic-wasting-disease.blogspot.com/2019/12/in-vitro-detection-of-chronic-wasting.html

SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 16, 2020

***> Jerking for Dollars, Are Texas Politicians and Legislators Masturbating Deer For Money, and likely spreading CWD TSE Prion?

https://chronic-wasting-disease.blogspot.com/2020/02/jerking-for-dollars-are-texas.html

THURSDAY, JULY 10, 2014

supercalifragilisticexpialidocious or superovulationcwdtsepriondocious ? (It was noted with concern that hormone extracts could be manufactured by a veterinary surgeon for administration to animals under his care without any Medicines Act Control.) PITUITARY EXTRACT This was used to help cows super ovulate.

*** This tissue was considered to be of greatest risk of containing BSE and consequently transmitting the disease. ***

http://www.bseinquiry.gov.uk/files/yb/1988/06/08011001.pdf ;

https://web.archive.org/web/20090718143059/http://www.bseinquiry.gov.uk/files/yb/1988/06/08011001.pdf

https://web.archive.org/web/20090506001348/http://www.bseinquiry.gov.uk/files/mb/m11g/tab04.pdf

http://chronic-wasting-disease.blogspot.com/2014/07/supercalifragilisticexpialidocious-or.html

Proposed Amendments to CWD Zone Rules Your opinions and comments have been submitted successfully.

Thank you for participating in the TPWD regulatory process.

https://tpwd.texas.gov/business/feedback/public_comment/proposals/202208_cwd.phtml

THURSDAY, AUGUST 04, 2022

Texas Proposed Amendments to CWD Zone Rules Singeltary Submission

https://chronic-wasting-disease.blogspot.com/2022/08/texas-proposed-amendments-to-cwd-zone.html

FRIDAY, APRIL 30, 2021

Should Property Evaluations Contain Scrapie, CWD, TSE PRION Environmental Contamination of the land?

***> Confidential!!!!

***> As early as 1992-3 there had been long studies conducted on small pastures containing scrapie infected sheep at the sheep research station associated with the Neuropathogenesis Unit in Edinburgh, Scotland. Whether these are documented...I don't know. But personal recounts both heard and recorded in a daily journal indicate that leaving the pastures free and replacing the topsoil completely at least 2 feet of thickness each year for SEVEN years....and then when very clean (proven scrapie free) sheep were placed on these small pastures.... the new sheep also broke out with scrapie and passed it to offspring. I am not sure that TSE contaminated ground could ever be free of the agent!! A very frightening revelation!!!

---end personal email---end...tss

https://transmissiblespongiformencephalopathy.blogspot.com/2021/04/should-property-evaluations-contain.html

WEDNESDAY, MAY 17, 2017

*** Chronic Wasting Disease CWD TSE Prion aka Mad Deer Disease and the Real Estate Market Land Values ***

http://chronic-wasting-disease.blogspot.com/2017/05/chronic-wasting-disease-cwd-tse-prion.html

MONDAY, MARCH 05, 2018

TRUCKING AROUND AND SPREADING CHRONIC WASTING DISEASE CWD TSE PRION VIA MOVEMENT OF CERVID AND TRANSPORTATION VEHICLES

http://chronic-wasting-disease.blogspot.com/2018/03/trucking-around-and-spreading-chronic.html

TUESDAY, JUNE 28, 2022

TAHC PROPOSES CHANGES TO VOLUNTARY CWD PROGRAM CHAPTER 40, CHRONIC WASTING DISEASE SINGELTARY SUBMISSION JUNE 28, 2022

https://chronic-wasting-disease.blogspot.com/2022/06/tahc-proposes-changes-to-voluntary-cwd.html

***> TEXAS HISTORY OF CWD <***

Singeltary telling TAHC, that CWD was waltzing into Texas from WSMR around Trans Pecos region, starting around 2001, 2002, and every year, there after, until New Mexico finally shamed TAHC et al to test where i had been telling them to test for a decade. 2012 cwd was detected first right there where i had been trying to tell TAHC for 10 years.

***> Singeltary on Texas Chronic Wasting Disease CWD TSE Prion History <***

http://chronic-wasting-disease.blogspot.com/2017/08/texas-chronic-wasting-disease-cwd-tse.html

A third issue is the accuracy of mortality reporting. Department records indicate that for each of the last five years an average of 26 deer breeders have reported a shared total of 159 escapes. Department records for the same time period indicate an average of 31 breeding facilities reported a shared total of 825 missing deer (deer that department records indicate should be present in the facility, but cannot be located or verified).

https://tpwd.texas.gov/business/feedback/meetings/2022/1104/agenda/item.phtml?item=5

WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 14, 2022

CHRONIC WASTING DISEASE CWD TSE PRION UPDATE DECEMBER 14, 2022

https://chronic-wasting-disease.blogspot.com/2022/12/chronic-wasting-disease-cwd-tse-prion.html

Control of Chronic Wasting Disease OMB Control Number: 0579-0189 APHIS-2021-0004 Singeltary Submission

Comment from Singeltary, Terry Posted by the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service on Mar 11, 2021

Control of Chronic Wasting Disease OMB Control Number: 0579-0189 APHIS-2021-0004 Singeltary Submission

Greetings APHIS et al, i would kindly like to comment on Control of Chronic Wasting Disease OMB Control Number: 0579-0189 APHIS-2021-0004.

Greetings APHIS et al, i would kindly like to comment on Control of Chronic Wasting Disease OMB Control Number: 0579-0189 APHIS-2021-0004.

***> 1st and foremost your biggest problem is 'VOLUNTARY'! AS with the BSE 589.2001 FEED REGULATIONS, especially since it is still voluntary with cervid, knowing full well that cwd and scrapie will transmit to pigs by oral route. VOLUNTARY DOES NOT WORK! all animal products should be banned and be made mandatory, and the herd certification program should be mandatory, or you don't move cervid. IF THE CWD HERD CERTIFICATION IS NOT MANDATORY, it will be another colossal tse prion failure from the start.

***> 2nd USA should declare a Declaration of Extraordinary Emergency due to CWD, and all exports of cervid and cervid products must be stopped internationally, and there should be a ban of interstate movement of cervid, until a live cwd test is available.

***> 3rd Captive Farmed cervid ESCAPEES should be made mandatory to report immediately, and strict regulations for those suspect cwd deer that just happen to disappear. IF a cervid escapes and is not found, that farm should be indefinitely shut down, all movement, until aid MIA cervid is found, and if not ever found, that farm shut down permanently.

***> 4th Captive Farmed Cervid, INDEMNITY, NO MORE Federal indemnity program, or what i call, ENTITLEMENT PROGRAM for game farm industry. NO MORE BAIL OUTS FROM TAX PAYERS. if the captive industry can't buy insurance to protect not only themselves, but also their customers, and especially the STATE, from Chronic Wasting Disease CWD TSE Prion or what some call mad deer disease and harm therefrom, IF they can't afford to buy that insurance that will cover all of it, then they DO NOT GET A PERMIT to have a game farm for anything. This CWD TSE Prion can/could/has caused property values to fall from some reports in some places. roll the dice, how much is a state willing to lose?

***> 5th QUARANTINE OF ALL FARMED CAPTIVE, BREEDERS, URINE, ANTLER, VELVET, SPERM, OR ANY FACILITY, AND THEIR PRODUCTS, that has been confirmed to have Chronic Wasting Disease CWD TSE Prion, the QUARANTINE should be for 21 years due to science showing what scrapie can do. 5 years is NOT near long enough. see; Infectious agent of sheep scrapie may persist in the environment for at least 16 to 21 years.

***> 6th America BSE 589.2001 FEED REGULATIONS CWD TSE Prion

***> 7TH TRUCKING TRANSPORTING CERVID CHRONIC WASTING DISEASE TSE PRION VIOLATING THE LACEY ACT

***> 8TH ALL CAPTIVE FARMING CERVID OPERATIONS MUST BE INSURED TO PAY FOR ANY CLEAN UP OF CWD AND QUARANTINE THERE FROM FOR THE STATE, NO MORE ENTITLEMENT PROGRAM FOR CERVID GAME FARMING PAY TO PLAY FOR CWD TSE PRION OFF THE TAX PAYERS BACK.

***> 9TH ANY STATE WITH DOCUMENTED CWD, INTERSTATE, NATIONAL, AND INTERNATIONAL MOVEMENT OF ALL CERVID, AND ALL CERVID PRODUCTS MUST BE HALTED!

***> 10TH BAN THE SALE OF STRAW BRED BUCKS AND ALL CERVID SEMEN AND URINE PRODUCTS

***> 11th ALL CAPTIVE FARMED CERVID AND THEIR PRODUCTS MUST BE CWD TSE PRION TESTED ANNUALLY AND BEFORE SALE FOR CWD TSE PRION

SEE FULL SCIENCE REFERENCES AND REASONINGS ;

***> 1st and foremost your biggest problem is 'VOLUNTARY'!

''APHIS created a cooperative, voluntary Federal-State-private sector CWD Herd Certification Program designed to identify farmed or captive herds infected with CWD.''

key word failure is 'voluntary'.

WE know for a fact now that voluntary does NOT WORK!

AS with the BSE 589.2001 FEED REGULATIONS (see , another colossal failure, and proven to be a sham, especially since it is still voluntary with cervid, knowing full well that cwd and scrapie will transmit to pigs by oral route. VOLUNTARY DOES NOT WORK! all animal products should be banned and be made mandatory, and the herd certification program should be mandatory, or you don't move cervid. IF THE CWD HERD CERTIFICATION IS NOT MANDATORY, it will be another colossal tse prion failure from the start.

***> 2nd USA should declare a Declaration of Extraordinary Emergency due to CWD, and all exports of cervid and cervid products must be stopped internationally, and there should be a ban of interstate movement of cervid, until a live cwd test is available.

***> 3rd Captive Farmed cervid ESCAPEES should be made mandatory to report immediately, and strict regulations for those suspect cwd deer that just happen to disappear. IF a cervid escapes and is not found, that farm should be indefinitely shut down, all movement, until aid MIA cervid is found, and if not ever found, that farm shut down permanently. ...snip...see full text submission with science references...TSS

https://www.regulations.gov/comment/APHIS-2021-0004-0002

https://downloads.regulations.gov/APHIS-2021-0004-0002/attachment_1.pdf

Docket No. APHIS-2018-0011 Chronic Wasting Disease Herd Certification

https://www.regulations.gov/document/APHIS-2018-0011-0003

https://downloads.regulations.gov/APHIS-2018-0011-0003/attachment_1.pdf

APHIS Indemnity Regulations [Docket No. APHIS-2021-0010] RIN 0579-AE65 Singeltary Comment Submission

Comment from Singeltary Sr., Terry

Posted by the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service on Sep 8, 2022

https://www.regulations.gov/comment/APHIS-2021-0010-0003

downloads.regulations.gov/APHIS-2021-0010-0003/attachment_1.pdf

MAD COW FEED BAN AND CERVID FEED, WHAT IF?

e) "Big Jim's" BBB Deer Ration, Big Buck Blend, Recall # V-104-6;

Product manufactured from 02/01/2005 until 06/06/2006

RECALLING FIRM/MANUFACTURER Alabama Farmers Cooperative, Inc., Decatur, AL, by telephone, fax, email and visit on June 9, 2006. FDA initiated recall is complete.

REASON Animal and fish feeds which were possibly contaminated with ruminant based protein not labeled as

"Do not feed to ruminants".

VOLUME OF PRODUCT IN COMMERCE 125 tons

DISTRIBUTION AL and FL

END OF ENFORCEMENT REPORT FOR AUGUST 2, 2006

http://web.archive.org/web/20060821195949/http://www.fda.gov/bbs/topics/enforce/2006/ENF00963.html

Friday, December 14, 2012

DEFRA U.K. What is the risk of Chronic Wasting Disease CWD being introduced into Great Britain? A Qualitative Risk Assessment October 2012

snip...

In the USA, under the Food and Drug Administration's BSE Feed Regulation (21 CFR 589.2000) most material (exceptions include milk, tallow, and gelatin) from deer and elk is prohibited for use in feed for ruminant animals. With regards to feed for non-ruminant animals, under FDA law, CWD positive deer may not be used for any animal feed or feed ingredients. For elk and deer considered at high risk for CWD, the FDA recommends that these animals do not enter the animal feed system. However, this recommendation is guidance and not a requirement by law.

Animals considered at high risk for CWD include:

1) animals from areas declared to be endemic for CWD and/or to be CWD eradication zones and

2) deer and elk that at some time during the 60-month period prior to slaughter were in a captive herd that contained a CWD-positive animal.

Therefore, in the USA, materials from cervids other than CWD positive animals may be used in animal feed and feed ingredients for non-ruminants.

The amount of animal PAP that is of deer and/or elk origin imported from the USA to GB can not be determined, however, as it is not specified in TRACES. It may constitute a small percentage of the 8412 kilos of non-fish origin processed animal proteins that were imported from US into GB in 2011.

Overall, therefore, it is considered there is a __greater than negligible risk___ that (nonruminant) animal feed and pet food containing deer and/or elk protein is imported into GB.

There is uncertainty associated with this estimate given the lack of data on the amount of deer and/or elk protein possibly being imported in these products.

snip...

http://webarchive.nationalarchives.gov.uk/20130908115835/http://www.defra.gov.uk/animal-diseases/files/qra_chronic-wasting-disease-121029.pdf

MONDAY, FEBRUARY 23, 2026

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

MONDAY, FEBRUARY 23, 2026

***> 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

ARS Research Project: Elucidating the Pathobiology and Transmission of Transmissible Spongiform Encephalopathies 2025

“ARS researchers in Ames, Iowa, showed that white-tailed deer sick with scrapie from sheep can infect other deer under conditions mimicking natural exposure. Furthermore, this work shows that CWD is difficult to differentiate from WTD infected with scrapie. WTD scrapie prions accumulate in the lymphoreticular system in a manner similar to CWD, meaning that environmental contamination may occur through feces, saliva, and other body fluids of scrapie affected WTD as has been shown for CWD. The presence of WTD infected with scrapie could confound mitigation efforts for chronic wasting disease. This information informs regulatory officials, the farmed cervid industry, and officials tasked with protecting animal health such as state Departments of Agriculture, Natural Resources, or Parks and Wildlife with regard to a disease similar to CWD but arising from sheep scrapie that could be present in WTD that have contact with scrapie affected sheep and/or goats.”

Research Project: Elucidating the Pathobiology and Transmission of Transmissible Spongiform Encephalopathies

Location: Virus and Prion Research

2025 Annual Report

Objectives

Objective 1: Develop highly sensitive detection tools to determine the distribution of CWD and scrapie prions in natural hosts (sheep, goats, cervids) and their environment.

Objective 2: Investigate the pathobiology of CWD, scrapie prion strains, and atypical TSEs in natural hosts including potential cross species transmission events.

Objective 3: Investigate the genetics of CWD susceptibility and resistance in white-tailed deer.

Objective 4: Evaluate the presence of and determine the appropriate methodology for CWD strain determination.

Approach

Eradication or control of a family of diseases is unlikely or impossible when an understanding of the basic mechanisms and influences on transmission are unknown and for which methods to evaluate disease status are lacking. Scrapie and BSE represent the most thoroughly studied TSEs; however, significant knowledge gaps persist with regard to the atypical variants of these diseases. Further, much of the research emphasis to date on genetics of prion disease has focused on the recipient genotype rather than the source. Since both atypical BSE and atypical scrapie have been suggested to occur spontaneously, eradication of these diseases may not be possible unless we expand our understanding of the disease at both the source and recipient level. A better understanding of the tissue distribution and potential transmission of these atypical isolates is critical to understanding what risk these disease variants may pose to ongoing control and eradication efforts. The European epizootic of BSE is waning and efforts to eradicate scrapie in the U.S. and abroad have progressed but are not complete. In the U.S., chronic wasting disease (CWD) presents the most serious challenge to regulatory efforts. CWD appears to be spreading unchecked in both free-ranging and farmed cervids. Methods for antemortem detection of TSEs in general and CWD in particular are needed to fulfill the goal of eradicating scrapie and controlling CWD. Performing these studies will allow us to address critical knowledge gaps that are relevant to developing measures to restrict further disease expansion beyond current, affected populations. Understanding prion disease persistence in animal populations is challenging due to lack of tools for study and a less than complete understanding of transmission among animals within a flock or herd or in naturally occurring reservoirs. In addition to transmission between hosts of like species, free-ranging cervids may come in contact with numerous other species including cattle, sheep, and other susceptible hosts. Transmission of CWD to other species has been studied but limited with regard to the source genotype used. The four primary objectives are inherently linked. Our focus is on developing tools needed for control and research, and using those tools to advance our understanding the complex disease process with the overall goal of eradication and control of disease in livestock, wildlife of economic importance, and potential wildlife reservoirs.

Progress Report

The goals of the project plan for fiscal year (FY) 2025 consisted of 12 milestones, 11 of which were either fully or substantially met. The only milestone in this plan that was not met was due to insufficient animal availability and space constraints. Previous studies utilizing this space are not complete due to longer than anticipated incubation periods and cannot be initiated until those studies are complete. In work toward addressing

Objective 1, “Develop highly sensitive detection tools to determine the distribution of chronic wasting disease (CWD) and scrapie prions in natural hosts (sheep, goats, cervids) and their environment”, we have worked closely with ARS researchers in Pullman, Washington, Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS), and university partners. The tools under development are directly utilized by state diagnostic labs and have been shared with the appropriate end users for evaluation. We have also assessed alternative dyes that have do not induce amyloid formation in the amplification based diagnostic assay known as RT-QuIC. While no increase in sensitivity was observed, differences between strains were found offering an additional means to differentiate strains for some TSEs.

Objective 2, “Investigate the pathobiology of CWD, scrapie prion strains, and atypical TSEs in natural hosts including potential cross species transmission events”, the studies in question have been initiated with the goal of furthering the understanding of these TSEs in agriculturally relevant species including the natural host species and other that may be exposed to these TSEs in an agricultural environment. The studies are ongoing and anticipated to last upwards of 5 year and observation of the animals is ongoing. No anticipated signs of disease or relevant reportable information have been seen nor are they expected until near the onset of clinical signs, but if they are observed they will be reported.

Objective 3, “Investigate the genetics of CWD susceptibility and resistance in white-tailed deer”, consists of two subobjectives:

A) Investigate the susceptibility of white-tailed deer to CWD modeling direct contact exposure with infected deer, and

B) Investigate the susceptibility of white-tailed deer to CWD after direct inoculation.

The first of these has been initiated on schedule while the second has been delayed considerably (greater than 3 years at this point) due to insufficient animal space.Upon completion these two studies will aid in understanding the disease and disease progression.

Objective 4, “Evaluate the presence of and determine the appropriate methodology for CWD strain determination”, is dependent upon obtaining a diverse set of CWD isolates. We are continuing the acquisition of these samples. . Strains are one of the least understood aspects of TSEs as a whole and of importance in understanding the risks of CWD. We have initiated studies that will address the biochemical nature of prion strains and how these strains are maintained in a host which will aid in addressing features and differentiation of strains as additional samples become available.

Accomplishments

1. 01 Determined that white-tailed deer (WTD) infected with scrapie from sheep can transmit the disease to other deer under conditions mimicking natural exposure. It has long been suggested that prion disease in deer (chronic wasting disease (CWD)) was caused by the prion agent from sheep. The prion disease that affects sheep, scrapie, has been recognized for hundreds of years. However, chronic wasting disease, a similar disease found in WTD, has only been recognized since the 1960s. ARS researchers in Ames, Iowa, showed that white-tailed deer sick with scrapie from sheep can infect other deer under conditions mimicking natural exposure. Furthermore, this work shows that CWD is difficult to differentiate from WTD infected with scrapie. WTD scrapie prions accumulate in the lymphoreticular system in a manner similar to CWD, meaning that environmental contamination may occur through feces, saliva, and other body fluids of scrapie affected WTD as has been shown for CWD. The presence of WTD infected with scrapie could confound mitigation efforts for chronic wasting disease. This information informs regulatory officials, the farmed cervid industry, and officials tasked with protecting animal health such as state Departments of Agriculture, Natural Resources, or Parks and Wildlife with regard to a disease similar to CWD but arising from sheep scrapie that could be present in WTD that have contact with scrapie affected sheep and/or goats.

2. 02 Showed that gene-targeted mice are capable of reproducing strain specific effects typically limited to natural host species of chronic wasting disease (CWD). CWD is a highly contagious disease of deer, elk, moose, and reindeer found in North America, South Korea, and Scandinavian countries that is caused by misfolded proteins called prions. CWD prions transmit through direct contact between infected animals, or through contaminated soil, grass, or water. All prion diseases exhibit progressive neurodegeneration and ultimately death. Scientists typically study CWD by injecting prions into susceptible animals' brains in lab experiments. Intracranial prion injections are favored because they typically produce shorter incubation periods and higher disease attack rates compared to natural infection. ARS researchers in Ames, Iowa, along with university collaborators showed that this inoculation method can cause the prion strains to change in a way that does not accurately reflect how the disease spreads naturally. They found that using a combination of peripheral inoculation (injection outside the brain) in natural hosts and using novel gene-targeted mice generated in a manner that provides a more natural expression of the inserted prion gene that gives a more accurate picture of how CWD behaves in the real world. The novel mouse model provides an important strategy to precisely assess the zoonotic potential (likelihood of transmission from animals to humans) of CWD and other animal prion diseases using natural routes of transmission. This will impact the tools used and direction of future studies of CWD and other prion diseases allowing more rapid and comprehensive responses to emerging questions aiding both the researchers at the producers they support…end

https://www.ars.usda.gov/research/project/?accnNo=440677&fy=202

Chronic Wasting Disease CWD vs Scrapie TSE Prion

Volume 30, Number 8—August 2024

Research

Scrapie Versus Chronic Wasting Disease in White-Tailed Deer

Zoe J. Lambert1, Jifeng Bian, Eric D. Cassmann, M. Heather West Greenlee, and Justin J. Greenlee

Author affiliations: Oak Ridge Institute for Science and Education, Oak Ridge, Tennessee, USA (Z.J. Lambert); US Department of Agriculture, Ames, Iowa, USA (Z.J. Lambert, J. Bian, E.D. Cassmann, J.J. Greenlee); Iowa State University, Ames (Z.J. Lambert, M.H. West Greenlee) Suggested citation for this article

Abstract

White-tailed deer are susceptible to scrapie (WTD scrapie) after oronasal inoculation with the classical scrapie agent from sheep. Deer affected by WTD scrapie are difficult to differentiate from deer infected with chronic wasting disease (CWD). To assess the transmissibility of the WTD scrapie agent and tissue phenotypes when further passaged in white-tailed deer, we oronasally inoculated wild-type white-tailed deer with WTD scrapie agent. We found that WTD scrapie and CWD agents were generally similar, although some differences were noted. The greatest differences were seen in bioassays of cervidized mice that exhibited significantly longer survival periods when inoculated with WTD scrapie agent than those inoculated with CWD agent. Our findings establish that white-tailed deer are susceptible to WTD scrapie and that the presence of WTD scrapie agent in the lymphoreticular system suggests the handling of suspected cases should be consistent with current CWD guidelines because environmental shedding may occur.

snip…

The potential for zoonoses of cervid-derived PrPSc is still not well understood (6,18,45–47); however, interspecies transmission can increase host range and zoonotic potential (48–50). Therefore, to protect herds and the food supply, suspected cases of WTD scrapie should be handled the same as cases of CWD.

https://wwwnc.cdc.gov/eid/article/30/8/24-0007_article

Research Project: Elucidating the Pathobiology and Transmission of Transmissible Spongiform Encephalopathies

Location: Virus and Prion Research

2025 Annual Report

https://transmissiblespongiformencephalopathy.blogspot.com/2025/12/ars-research-elucidating-pathobiology.html

SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 28, 2026

atypical Nor-98, CH1641, Scrapie, TSE Prion, Update 2026

https://nor-98.blogspot.com/2026/02/atypical-nor-98-ch1641-scrapie-tse.html

***> PIGS CWD PIGS CWD PIGS CWD <***

WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 28, 2026

***> CWD TSE Prions in cervids and wild pigs in North America Preliminary Outbreak <***

Chronic wasting disease prions in cervids and wild pigs in North America Preliminary Outbreak

https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/697a3b013c71d838df6bd413/CWD_Prions_in_Cervids_and_Wild_Pigs_in_North_America.pdf

https://transmissiblespongiformencephalopathy.blogspot.com/2026/01/chronic-wasting-disease-prions-in.html

THURSDAY, JANUARY 08, 2026

Confucius Ponders, what about Wild Pigs (Sus scrofa) and CWD TSE Prion, and the Environment, what if?

Confucius Ponders, what about Wild Pigs (Sus scrofa), they can cover some distance rather quickly, what about Wild Pigs (Sus scrofa) digging up the terrain, and as they do it, what if these Wild Pigs (Sus scrofa) were exposed to CWD TSE Prion, and then they go on exposing and saturating the land with CWD TSE Prion, then the soil becomes contaminated with CWD TSE Prion, then what about the plants that grow from that soil for the decades to come, what if???

https://prpsc.proboards.com/thread/190/confucius-ponders-wild-pigs-scrofa

https://chronic-wasting-disease.blogspot.com/2026/01/confucius-ponders-what-about-wild-pigs.html

Scrapie, CWD, BSE, CJD, TSE, PrP Update 2026

***> CWD Action Plan National Program 103 Animal Health 2022-2027 UPDATE JANUARY 2026

https://prpsc.proboards.com/thread/189/action-national-program-animal-health

https://chronic-wasting-disease.blogspot.com/2026/01/cwd-action-plan-national-program-103.html

***> SCRAPIE TSE Prion USA RAPID RESPONSE URGENT UPDATES DECEMBER 25, 2025

***> CWD vs Scrapie Urgent Update

https://scrapie-usa.blogspot.com/2025/12/scrapie-tse-prion-usa-rapid-response.html

https://prpsc.proboards.com/thread/186/scrapie-prion-response-urgent-updates

***> 2026 USDA EXPLANATORY NOTES, APHIS, CWD, BSE, Scrapie, TSE, Prion

https://transmissiblespongiformencephalopathy.blogspot.com/2025/12/2026-usda-explanatory-notes-aphis-cwd.html

USDA National Scrapie Program History and Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy BSE TSE Update 2025 and history there from

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/396084947_USDA_National_Scrapie_Program_History_and_Bovine_Spongiform_Encephalopathy_BSE_TSE0AUpdate_2

TUESDAY, JANUARY 20, 2026

Pathogenesis, Transmission and Detection of Zoonotic Prion Diseases Project Number 5P01AI077774-14 2025

https://chronic-wasting-disease.blogspot.com/2026/01/pathogenesis-transmission-and-detection.html

TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 30, 2025

USDA National Scrapie Program History and Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy BSE TSE Update 2025

https://bovineprp.blogspot.com/2025/09/usda-national-scrapie-program-history.html

https://scrapie-usa.blogspot.com/2025/09/usda-national-scrapie-program-history.html