A case of chronic wasting disease (CWD) has been confirmed in a captive deer herd in North Central West Virginia. The discovery was made after several deer in the facility died from epizootic hemorrhagic disease (EHD) during a particularly bad year for the disease amid drought conditions in the state. CWD is a long-term ailment that is difficult to detect in live animals, with no clinical signs typically showing until the final stages of the disease.
The affected facility has been placed in quarantine, and plans are in place to humanely depopulate the herd to prevent further spread of the disease. The discovery marks the first case of CWD in captive deer in West Virginia, outside of the containment zone where it was discovered in the wild deer population over a decade ago.
The Department of Agriculture and the USDA are working on the indemnity process to compensate the owner for the loss of the herd. The legislation in 2015 transferred regulatory authority over captive cervid facilities to the Department of Agriculture, with the goal of preventing the spread of diseases like CWD.
The investigation into the incident is ongoing, with monitoring of other captive facilities as well as the wild deer population in the surrounding areas. The Department of Natural Resources is supporting efforts to protect the wild deer herd from contamination. More information will be released in the future as the investigation progresses.
Source
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