The Department of Natural Resources Division of Wildlife has identified a positive test for Chronic Wasting Disease (CWD) in a wild Ohio white-tailed deer in Wyandot County.
Additional details about the adult male deer taken by a hunter on private property are being gathered. Tissue samples were submitted for testing by a taxidermist and the positive test was identified after results were obtained on December 10, 2020.
The Division of Wildlife will implement its CWD response plan, which includes enhanced surveillance within a 10-mile radius of the CWD positive deer location in Wyandot County. Mandatory deer disease sample collection will occur on all remaining Killdeer Plains Wildlife Area controlled hunts. Hunters who harvest a deer in Wyandot County during the remaining deer hunting season, which closes February 7, 2021, will be contacted to obtain disease samples by Division of Wildlife staff.
The Division of Wildlife has conducted routine surveillance for CWD since 2002, testing more than 25,000 deer without finding a CWD positive deer in the wild herd. FCWD has previously been detected at captive deer breeding facilities in Ohio. Find more information about Ohio’s CWD surveillance here.
Hunters should take precautions when handling and processing any harvested deer. Hunters may have a harvested deer tested at the Ohio Department of Agriculture’s Animal Disease Diagnostic Laboratory for a small fee. Call (614) 728-6220 for more information.
CWD has been detected in 26 states and four Canadian provinces. The disease was first discovered in the 1960s in the western U.S. Click here for more information about this disease.
The fatal neurological disease affects white-tailed deer and other similar species, including mule deer, elk and moose. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, there is no strong evidence that CWD is transmissible to humans.