Every hunting season since 1998 Arizona Game and Fish Department has asked hunters to bring them elk and deer heads to test for chronic wasting disease. The condition causes proteins in the animals’ brains to fold abnormally into so called ‘prions’ leading to cellular death.
This highly contagious and deadly infection can be transmitted by nose-to-nose contact, grooming, and direct transmission from mothers to their young. Animals can also catch it by eating soil or plants which have been in contact with infected animals.
The disease is always fatal and has no vaccine. It can be several months before infected animals show disease symptoms, which include severe weight loss, stumbling, and loss of awareness of their surroundings.
With no reliable live tests currently available, diagnosis requires animals to be killed and their lymph nodes or brain stem tissue to be analyzed.
Present in 37 states including New Mexico, Utah, and Colorado, so far, the disease has not infected Arizona’s elk and deer herds, blocked by natural barriers such as mountains and rivers. The highest risk of spread is along the Kaibab Plateau, and Arizona’s eastern and southern borders.
As well as bringing harvested heads to any Arizona Game and Fish Department office, hunters are asked to report animals showing potential disease symptoms.
It’s also vital to follow carcass disposal regulations, and not to import any unprocessed elk or deer meat from out-of-state - important measures to help keep this deadly disease out of Arizona.
This episode of Earth Notes is funded in part by Pink Jeep Tours, written by Diane Hope, and produced by KNAU and the Sustainable Communities Program at Northern Arizona University.
