Chronic Wasting Disease Found In Upstate NY Deer For The First Time Since 2005

In October, the New York State department of Environmental Conservation announced that they would be holding a competition for a lifetime hunting license in the state. Why?

Read More: Local Hunters Can Win a Lifetime License by Helping the DEC

Well, the DEC was worried about Chronic Wasting Disease and figured local hunters were the right ones to check. They were right.

Chronic Wasting Disease

Chronic Wasting Disease (CWD) is a fatal, transmissible disease that attacks the central nervous system of deer, elk, and moose. Luckily, there is no precedent for the disease to spread to humans, but the DEC has always recommended to stay away from consuming infected meat.

New York's DEC didn't start monitoring the disease until 2002, and just three years later, it was confirmed in both wild and captive deer in Oneida County. Since then, very few cases have popped up, aside from a captive red deer herd in Herkimer County in 2024.

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It's Back...

These past few months, the DEC has been focused on finding new cases so the spread can be stopped as soon as possible. On November 6th, the DEC confirmed a case was found in a wild deer near the Town of Sparta, the first in a wild animal since 2005.

Because of this, the DEC will have to enact their CWD Response Plan, which aims to find out how prevalent the disease is in local communities, and what they can do to stop the spread even further. You can read the full response plan HERE.