LUZERNE COUNTY (WBRE/WYOU)— A fatal neurological disease is hitting NEPA wildlife.
Two separate cases of Chronic Wasting Disease (CWD) have been confirmed by the game commission in Luzerne County, the first cases ever discovered in the county and in northeastern Pennsylvania.
And the discovery impacts every deer hunter in the area.
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The two cases involve a wild deer in Sugarloaf Township, and the other at a deer farm whose location has not yet been released.
Chronic Wasting Disease is a highly contagious neurological disease found in members of the deer family.
The disease is primarily spread through bodily fluids, either through direct contact or contaminated soil where the disease can remain infectious for years, even decades.
First discovered in Pennsylvania's whitetail deer population in 2012, CWD has spread throughout the commonwealth, posing a significant threat to both deer and elk populations.
"There hasn't been anything this far into the northeast. What we've been seeing in CWD in recent years generally has been a sort of outward spread from where we know we have it," explained Travis Lau, Communications Director, Pennsylvania Game Commission.
Currently there are seven disease management areas in Pennsylvania hoping to reduce human-related activities like feeding, the use of urine-based attractants in hunting, and the spread of high-risk parts of a harvested animal like the head, spleen, and spinal column.
"There's not necessarily much that can be done to control that spread among the wild population, but the one thing that we can all do is to control the human-assisted spread," said Lau.
As for the deer in captivity, the Department of Agriculture has placed the unnamed farm under a five year quarantine order, requiring the farm to test any additional deer that die there, and preventing the transfer of deer on or off the farm.
Officials from the game commission say CWD can have an incubation period of up to 18 months, meaning a deer could be infected but not show any physical signs of illness.
That means hunters should have their meat tested before eating it.
And while there is no evidence to suggest the consumption of a diseased animal poses a danger to humans, both the center for disease control and the Pennsylvania Game Commission advise against it.
The game commission will be hosting an informational meeting later this month to answer questions from the public.
