Game managers are finding more and more skinny, lethargic, excessively salivating, droopy-eared deer and elk throughout the state.
They’re infected with chronic wasting disease (CWD), an incurable, always fatal and easily transmissible brain disease that continues to spread into new areas of the state.
Wyoming Game and Fish tested thousands of deer, elk and moose carcasses throughout the state in 2024 for the disease. CWD was confirmed in almost 14%, similar to the previous two years.
But according to Jessica Jennings, who manages the state’s wildlife health laboratory in Laramie that tests the samples from around the state, that number doesn’t tell the whole story.
“We’re seeing CWD prevalences increase,” Jennings said. “We are seeing more detections in western Wyoming where we haven’t seen it before, so that’s always concerning that it’s continuing to spread into new areas and continuing to get worse in the areas where we knew we had it.”
She said Game and Fish focuses on different regions of the state each year to gather an accurate sample size. This year, their priority areas were largely in western Wyoming.
CWD prevalence is higher in mule deer than elk. The most infected is the Project mule deer herd on the Wind River Reservation, where the state wildlife agency estimates two-thirds of animals have the brain disease.
There were no confirmed cases of CWD in moose last year.
In elk, CWD prevalence is mostly concentrated to northwest Wyoming near the Bighorns and southeast near Laramie. The state game agency estimates about 10% of elk are infected in the Iron Mountain herd near Laramie, the largest prevalence of any elk herd in the state.
“We know that CWD can have hot spots,” Jennings said. “We can have high prevalences of a species in one area and maybe not as high a prevalence of a different species in that same area.”
Last year, the disease spread into three new mule deer and three new elk hunt areas. CWD has been confirmed in the majority of mule deer and elk hunt areas in the state. CWD has also been confirmed in 95% of documented mule deer herds in the state and 62% of elk herds.
Especially concerning, CWD was detected on an elk feedground in western Wyoming, a first in the state. That was quickly followed by two separate incidents of confirmed cases on two other feedgrounds.
Experts say feedgrounds bring elk into too close of contact, where disease can more easily spread.
Hunters sent in the bulk of samples that Game and Fish tested. It’s mandatory to test deer and elk in some areas, but testing is voluntary in most hunt areas. Jennings encourages hunters to continue submitting samples.
The full report is available online.
