The Idaho Department of Fish and Game says two mule deer bucks harvested during October in the Slate Creek drainage near Lucile in Idaho County have tested positive for Chronic Wasting Disease.
Although the disease has been known to exist in the Western United States for over 40 years, it’s the first time animals in Idaho have tested positive for the sickness, which is fatal to deer, elk, moose and caribou.
The Idaho Fish and Game Commission has been notified, as well as the Idaho Department of Agriculture, the Idaho Department of Health and Welfare and the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
Samples from the diseased mule deer were tested at the Colorado State University Veterinary Diagnostic Lab and are being verified by the National Veterinary Services Laboratories in Ames, Iowa.
Anyone hunting in Unit 14 is encouraged to have any harvested deer or elk tested.
To sample for Chronic Wasting Disease, lymph node tissue from fresh or frozen harvested heads are extracted. Meat or muscle tissue cannot be used to test for the disease.
