The Division of Wildlife Resources (DWR) wanted to stop by Castle Country Radio to speak with listeners about Chronic Wasting Disease (CWD) since the General Deer Hunt will begin on October 21.

“Really what it is, is a protein that is spread between deer, moose and elk. It’s a protein that attaches at the brain stem and really when the animal has contracted CWD you can kind of see it visually looking at them. They’re a little bit lissful, they might be drooling a little bit more, they’re going to lose a lot of weight, become emaciated and so they’re just not acting normal,” said Conservation Outreach Manager, Brandon Behling. Most of the time the animals will not have that natural fear of humans and will eventually die from the disease.

The DWR first noticed the disease back in 2002 and since then, there have been only 158 cases to date, with most of those being deer, with only four elk cases in the state until recently. “That’s one thing we want to point out is we did just see a positive elk come off the La Sal Mountains. So we really want to encourage those who have an elk tag for the La Sal Mountains down around Moab, to come in and have that animal checked. Let us take a sample, just because now we are seeing it in elk down there. We’ve known it’s been in the deer heard down there but now it’s crossed over into elk,” explained Behling.

The DWR takes CWD very seriously and will sometimes set up checkpoints to get deer tested for the disease. “We’re vigilant at tracking, we want to know where its at. We are offering these check stations throughout that state, as well as at all our regional offices. If you aren’t going to be passing by one of the check stations, you can always call a regional office, schedule an appointment, we would be happy to take a sample, its just a very small sample that we take and then we’ll send it off to the lab to be tested,” said Behling. For hunters in the Carbon County area there will be a checkpoint at Miller’s Travel Center in Wellington from October 21 through October 23 from 10:00 am to 6:00 pm.

If you would like more information on CWD contact the Southeast Region office at (435) 613-3700 or swing by their location of 319 North Carbonville Road, Suite A.