DEC: Positive case of Chronic Wasting Disease found in wild deer in Livingston County

DEC: Positive case of Chronic Wasting Disease found in wild deer in Livingston County Kiley Wren News10NBC File photo of Chronic Wasting Disease-infected deer. Photo via DEC. SPARTA, N.Y. — The State Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) says Chronic Wasting Disease (CWD) was detected in a wild deer in Livingston County. According to the DEC, the positive sample was from an adult female white-tailed deer. The DEC says this is the first case of CWD in a wild deer in New York State since 2005. The sample tissue was tested and retested at the New York State Veterinary Diagnostic Laboratory at Cornell University, with additional testing now underway. The DEC says all hunters who harvest a deer within the towns of Conesus, Groveland, North Dansville, Sparta, Springwater, and West Sparta must submit tissue samples from the deer to the DEC for CWD testing. Hunters can have their deer tested by bringing their deer to a DEC check station, a cooperating meat processor or taxidermist, or submitting the head to a head collection bin. You can learn more about deer testing by clicking here. Brendan Quirion, the DEC’s Big Game Unit Section Head, says this is a deadly disease within deer and other deer species, and a containment area needs to be established. The testing will help prevent the spread of CWD, the DEC says. “Chronic Wasting Disease is a slow onset disease. Deer can look otherwise healthy when they’re harvested,” said Quirion. “Late stages of the disease typically include signs of the deer being extremely skinny and neurological, meaning they are, you know, out of their sorts, drooling, walking in circles, carrying their head low but that’s not what we always see with CWD outbreak.” The DEC will be hosting a virtual information session on Tuesday, Nov. 17 at 7 p.m. To learn more about CWD and the positive case, click here.