LaSal buck tests positive for CWD

A mature buck found in the LaSal Mountains east of Moab, believed killed by a mountain lion, was tested and found to have chronic wasting disease.

It is the first reported case this year. This makes the 11th deer found in Utah over the past three years to have the disease.

"Last year, six of the 244 deer we sampled in the LaSal Mountains tested positive for the disease," reported Leslie McFarlane, wildlife biologist for the Utah Division of Wildlife Resources.

She said that so far this year, the DWR has collected samples from 207 animals for testing. These samples have come from various areas of the state. The division wants to collect more than 2,700 samples this year.

"We'll be taking samples from deer in specific units and from elk in the Uintah Basin and southeastern Utah," she added.

A map of the units that will be sampled this year can be viewed on the DWR's Web site — wildlife.utah.gov. Results from samples that have been submitted — and information about chronic wasting disease — are also available on the site.

Last fall, the DWR tested 3,167 deer. Most of the samples came from deer harvested in 17 of the state's 30 hunting units located in eastern areas.

Of the previous 10 deer found to have the disease, six came from the LaSal Mountains, three came from the Diamond Mountains near Vernal and one near the town of Fountain Green in the central part of the state.

Chronic wasting disease attacks the central nervous system of deer and elk and is fatal to infected animals. The first positive reading in Utah came from a deer killed during the 2002 rifle hunt northeast of Vernal.

Of the 11 deer found to have the disease, officials are most concerned about the deer found damaging crops near Fountain Green. It was shot by a DWR officer. While there may be a link between cases in Colorado and those in Moab and Vernal, there is no natural corridor between the area where the positive sample was found in Fountain Green.

Chronic wasting disease is in the same family of diseases as mad-cow disease, which has been transmitted to humans. It is also in the same group as Creutzfeld-Jakob disease, which is fatal to humans. And it is similar to scrapie, which has been around for more than 300 years and infects sheep but not humans. There is no evidence that CWD can be passed to humans.

The disease, found three decades ago along the Wyoming/Colorado border near Cheyenne, has begun to spread to other parts of the country the past couple of years. In most cases the cause has been traced to private elk ranches.

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