Second mule deer in Bondurant hunt area tests positive for chronic wasting disease

JACKSON (WNE) — Another mule deer in a hunt area near Bondurant has tested positive for chronic wasting disease.

The deer, which was found dead on someone’s property and later tested, is the second mule deer that has tested positive for the fatal neurological condition this year.

The first was harvested by a hunter in September.

Mark Gocke, spokesman for the Wyoming Game and Fish Department’s Jackson office, said the detection is not surprising. Hunt area 154, where the most recent buck was found, is bordered by other hunt areas where the disease has been detected: 142, 152, and 155.

“It’s a continuation,” Gocke said, “a progression of the disease westward.”

Chronic wasting disease causes ungulates to lose weight, stumble, drool and exhibit abnormal behavior, like lacking fear of people.

Prevalence varies in Wyoming’s deer herds from extreme, like in the Project Herd, which had an estimated 67% prevalence in 2022, to minimal, like in the Wyoming Range herd, which had an estimated 0.8% prevalence in the same year.

But even in areas with relatively little chronic wasting disease, wildlife biologists expect it will only spread farther as more animals come in contact with prions, the virulent agents that spread the disease. Prions can be transmitted through animal’s saliva and can survive outside for over a decade.

Chronic wasting disease is 100% fatal for deer, elk and moose that have been infected. State wildlife officials and federal health experts recommend that hunters test their animals for the disease.

While there has never been a case of chronic wasting disease transferring to humans, the World Health Organization and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention don’t want to take the chance. Wyoming Game and Fish says people shouldn’t eat contaminated meat.