Chronic wasting disease has been discovered in a deer breeding facility in Duval County in South Texas.
The latest discovery of CWD in Duval County is the closest confirmed case to the Rio Grande Valley, with Duval County located just north of Jim Hogg and Brooks counties.
Chronic wasting disease is a fatal infection of the brain that attacks cervids, such as white-tailed and mule deer, as well as elk and moose. It is difficult to diagnose since it takes years to reveal symptoms in infected animals and the only test to confirm it involves taking brain samples.
First identified in 1967 in captive mule deer in Colorado, CWD is now found in 26 states and three Canadian provinces. It was discovered in Texas in 2012 and has since spread to 14 counties.
Texas Parks and Wildlife Department officials immediately moved to secure all deer at the breeding facility in Duval County, and to track other breeding facilities that received stock from the site or shipped deer to the location.
“Early detection and containment remain critical strategies in our efforts to help mitigate the risk of further spread of this disease,” said Carter Smith, TPWD executive director. “There is too much at stake across Texas to do otherwise.”
Deer-breeding facilities are a growing industry in the state and have a direct economic impact of $349.4 million annually and an indirect impact of $786.9 million, according to a recent study by Texas A&M AgriLife.
While the economic benefits of captive deer breeding are significant, many Texas hunters and landowners have voiced concerns about the industry. They say the rise in cases of CWD in captive deer threaten a much bigger industry, the hunting of white-tailed and mule deer.
Fishing and hunting have an annual economic impact estimated at $14.4 billion in Texas, with hunting responsible for about $5 billion of that total.
In June, a coalition of landowners, hunters, conservationists, researchers and concerned citizens in Texas petitioned TPWD, calling for stricter regulation of deer-breeding facilities because of the risk to wild-deer populations.
The TPWD commission will host a special meeting on proposed rules related to CWD on Sept. 15. Earlier this year, the discovery of CWD in six deer breeding facilities necessitated the filing of emergency rules in an attempt to stop the spread of the disease.
While there is no link to CWD being contracted by humans, multiple state and federal health agencies advise against eating an infected deer which appears wasted or emaciated. Humans can contract a similar fatal prion disease, Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, although it is rare.
