CHRONIC WASTING DISEASE, 1 A disease that affects deer 
has reached Texas ... details ahead on Passport to Texas.

Passport to Texas with support from the WSFR Program 

Mule deer taken earlier this year from the Hueco 
Mountains in Far West Texas tested positive for Chronic 
Wasting Disease. 

15 -- It's what they call a transmissible spongiform 
encephalopathy, or TSE, which is similar to scrapie in sheep or 
BSE [mad cow disease] in cattle. I think it's important to note that 
CWD is not known to infect livestock or humans for that matter. 

Mitch Lockwood is TPW big game program director. The 
agency sampled more than 26-thousand hunter-harvested 
deer for the disease over the past decade; this recent 
discovery marks the first known cases inside Texas.

30 -- The incubation period for CWD is long. It can be two to three 
years, and it could possibly be longer than that in some cases. 
And so that's one of the challenges of the disease; the deer 
doesn't show any outward signs of being infected. There could be 
a long time between the deer actually being infected with 
CWD ... before it actually shows any outward sign. So, that disease 
is able to manifest itself long before we detect that disease in the 
population.

In the latter stages of the diseases, symptoms may include 
listlessness, weight loss, weakness, and no fear of 
humans. Contact Parks and Wildlife is you encounter a deer 
displaying these symptoms. 

Tomorrow: the CWD management strategy.

The WSFR program ... supports our series and funds diverse 
conservation projects throughout Texas ... 

For Texas Parks and Wildlife ... I'm Cecilia Nasti. 





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