Chronic Wasting Disease has become a serious problem for deer in neighboring states, but it appears to be staying out of Iowa for the time being. Bill Ohde, the Southeast District Supervisor of the Iowa Department of Natural Resources says CWD is a prion disease that afflicts white-tailed deer and other members of the deer family. It replicates itself in the deer’s nervous system and creates voids in the brain, which slowly kills the animals over time. It spreads through physical contact among infected deer, and also environmental contact such as feeding in the same place. The first documented case of CWD was in the late 1960’s at a facility in Colorado. Since then, it has spread to Iowa’s neighboring states, but hadn’t been documented here until 2014 in Alamakee County in northeast Iowa. Ohde says there haven’t been any cases in southeast Iowa among the wild white-tailed deer population.

He assures people the disease likely won’t come to southeast Iowa for many years, if ever. He says, “We’re doing monitoring every year. We do a lot of testing on both road-kill deer and deer that are shot by hunters. We sample deer and test for the disease, because we want to know if it does make its way into the state.” While CWD is fatal for deer, Ohde says there hasn’t been any evidence it’s harmful to humans. Health officials advise people to not consume a deer they know has the disease, but there are no cases of humans having adverse reactions to infected meat. Symptoms to watch for in deer include increased salivation, drooping ears and heads, disorientation, and a lack of fear of humans. If anyone sees a deer displaying the symptoms, Ohde tells them to alert the DNR, as opposed to killing the deer themselves. For more information about Chronic Wasting Disease, listen to the In Touch with Southeast Iowa interview with Ohde.