Two years ago the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation placed a statewide ban on the feeding of whitetail deer. This ban was put in place in fear of Chronic Wasting Disease spreading within New York State. The farthest east that CWD has been found is Northern Illinois (figure 1), 900 miles away, which means that the disease needs to travel 900 miles to get to New York before it can spread "within" New York State. .
Chronic wasting disease (CWD) is a transmissible neurological disease that affects deer and elk. In affected animals the disease creates small lesions in the brain and causes loss of body condition, behavioral abnormalities and death. CWD is compared to mad cow disease in cattle and scrapie in sheep. CWD is classified as a transmissible spongiform encephalopathy (TSE), a prion or an infectious protein without associated nucleic acids. Very little is known on how CWD is spread. Research points to the prion being spread by both animal to animal contact and soil or other surface to animal. The most common mode of transmission is believed to be through saliva and feces although the data to support this idea is lacking to say the least. (Chronic Wasting Disease Alliance).
States that have already found deer or elk that have tested positive for CWD include Montana, Wyoming, South Dakota, Colorado, Nebraska, Kansas, Minnesota, Illinois, and Wisconsin. All of which have relatively high concentrations of deer and elk. It is believed and data supports that CWD spreads through deer that are in close contact with each other in high densities year round. .
There is by no means an abundance of deer in the Adirondacks especially compared to other parts of the state and more importantly states that have already had occurrences of CWD. Deer in the Adirondacks are only in close contact with each other for a few months of the year. This makes the populations of deer in the Adirondacks different from the deer in areas and states that have had occurrences of CWD in that deer are not living close together throughout the year.
