By Brad Dokken on Mar 19, 2019 at 3:09 p.m.
A white-tailed deer found dead just south of Williston in late February has been confirmed as testing positive for chronic wasting disease, the North Dakota Game and Fish Department said Tuesday.
"This is unfortunate news because it means CWD is much farther south than the positive deer harvested this past fall in the northwest corner of deer unit 3A1 in Divide County," said Dr. Charlie Bahnson, wildlife veterinarian for the North Dakota Game and Fish Department.
CWD is a fatal disease of deer, moose and elk that can cause long-term population declines if left unchecked. Since 2009, 14 other deer have tested positive for CWD in North Dakota — 13 from Grant and Sioux counties in hunting unit 3F2 in the southwest, and the other taken last fall from the northwest in Divide County.
The deer found near Williston is the first documented case of a mortality due to CWD in North Dakota.
"All 14 previous detections were perfectly healthy-looking deer that were hunter-harvested before they got sick," Bahnson said. "This deer was severely emaciated and had an empty digestive tract, which is unusual even in starvation cases that can occur in harder winters like this one. This deer stopped trying to forage some time ago."
Bahnson said the deer probably was not the first to die of CWD in North Dakota, especially since the disease has been documented in 3F2 for a decade. "But this animal happened to die in an area where it was highly visible, and the carcass could be recovered in time for testing," he said.
"In other areas of the country where CWD has reached a tipping point, finding sick or dead CWD-infected deer has become common," Bahnson said. "We need to do everything in our power to ensure that doesn't happen in North Dakota."