Pennsylvania officials confirm wasting disease in wild deer

Associated Press

HARRISBURG, Pa.

Chronic wasting disease has been found for the first time in the state’s wild-deer population, nearly five months after it was initially identified in captive deer, the Pennsylvania Game Commission said Friday.

Three deer killed by hunters last fall in Blair and Bedford counties tested positive for the neurological illness, which is contagious and fatal among deer, elk and moose. There is no evidence it can be transmitted to humans.

The animals were the first free-ranging deer to test positive since the state began monitoring for the disease in 1998. The Game Commission plans to discuss the issue at a news conference Monday.

Until now, chronic wasting disease had been identified only in captive deer in Pennsylvania. Two animals died of the illness last fall on an Adams County farm, the first cases ever reported in the state.

Since then, about 5,000 deer have been tested for the disease statewide, officials said in a statement Friday.