Two mule deer bucks taken in the Slate Creek drainage near Lucile in October tested positive for chronic wasting disease (CWD), according to Idaho Fish and Game. Under Fish and Game’s CWD strategic plan, both hunters have been notified that their bucks tested positive.
Although CWD has been known to exist in the Western United States for over 40 years, this is the first time animals in Idaho have been tested positive for the disease, which is fatal to deer, elk, moose and caribou. The Idaho Fish and Game Commission has been notified, as well as the Idaho Department of Agriculture, the Idaho Department of Health and Welfare and the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
Samples from the diseased mule deer were tested at the Colorado State University Veterinary Diagnostic Lab and are being verified by the National Veterinary Services Laboratories in Ames, Iowa.
Anyone hunting in Unit 14 is encouraged to have any harvested deer or elk tested. To sample for CWD, lymph node tissue from fresh or frozen harvested heads are extracted. Meat or muscle tissue cannot be used to test for CWD.
Fish and Game will continue to supply more information as it becomes available. Visit idfg.idaho.gov/cwd for more information.
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