Home > Policy Issues > Chronic Wasting Disease > Introduction

Introduction

Chronic Wasting Disease is an insidious and costly disease. The cost of containment, testing, and research has been great. In Wisconsin, alone, estimates are that the effort to eliminate CWD costs the state around $20,000 a day. The cost in terms of the deaths and decimation of free-ranging and domestic deer and elk, lost revenues from hunting, and livelihoods that have been completely wiped out, perhaps, has even been greater.

The origin of CWD and how it is spread are still a mystery. However, it has been determined that CWD is part of a family of diseases known as transmissible spongiform encephalopathies (TSEs), which also includes mad cow disease, scrapie in sheep, and Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (CJD) in humans. It is a fatal disease caused by a virulent mutant protein called a prion. Currently, there is no approved live-animal test for CWD and, as a result, entire herds are slaughtered when just one animal shows signs of infection.

Photo courtesy of Dr. Beth Williams, University of Wyoming

According to many scientists, CWD seems more likely to occur in areas where deer or elk are crowded or where they congregate at man-made feed and water stations. Also, intrastate and interstate transport among game farms has likely contributed to the spread of the disease. Once introduced into a game farm, CWD appears to become readily established, although it may be years before animals begin to show signs of the disease and it is detected. Consequently, moratoria on the import of some, or all, deer and elk have been enacted by Colorado, Connecticut, Indiana, Idaho, North Carolina, Nebraska, New York, Texas, Virginia, and Wisconsin.

This web site offers the tools necessary to prevent Chronic Wasting Disease from entering your state by way of unregulated game farms. These tools include a sample bill, talking points, press clips, a fact pack, links, and other background information.

We may have other useful materials on this subject, which are not posted on our web site. Please feel free to contact us at [email protected] or call our office in Madison, Wisconsin, at (608) 252-9800.

If you’ve used this site and found it helpful or, if you have suggestions about how it could be made more helpful, please let us know. Feel free to use the sample bill text included here in your state. If you do, please notify us.

This package was last updated on September 19, 2003.