Summary of article in AgriLife Today
Chronic Wasting Disease or CWD, is a progressive neurological disease that can affect white-tailed deer, black-tailed deer, mule deer, elk, red deer, reindeer, sika and moose. Once infected, it can take two to four years for symptoms to appear – such as weight loss, drooling, stumbling and stupor.
Similar to bovine spongiform encephalopathy, BSE, in cattle and scrapie in sheep and goats, CWD is a naturally occurring transmissible spongiform encephalopathy, TSE, or prion disease. Prions are abnormal proteins and extremely difficult to destroy. Once infected, the prions initially affect the animal’s lymph nodes and after spreading through the body, eventually infect the brain.
CWD was first detected in Texas in mule deer in the Hueco Mountains. It has now affected mule deer, white-tailed deer and elk in West Texas and the Texas Panhandle. The state veterinary diagnostic laboratory, the Texas A&M Veterinary Medical Diagnostic Laboratory, is the only laboratory approved for testing CWD in Texas.
For more information about CWD testing at TVMDL, visit tvmdl.tamu.edu or call the College Station laboratory at 1-888-646-5623.