Nov 30, 2004 2 min read

There has yet to be any cases of chronic wasting disease confirmed in Pennsylvania deer. But that doesn’t mean the Game Commission can rest on its mountain laurels. Instead, the Game Commission is taking a proactive step by sending out teams, starting today, to collect 4,000 deer heads from butchers across the state. These samples will be tested to make sure that the devastating disease has not crossed into Pennsylvania.

It seems at first like a lot of labor and lab work for a disease that has not shown up in our forests. But it is preventative medicine that could save the deer herd. In a press release announcing that heads will be collected, Game Commission employee Bob Boyd explained how devastating the disease could be. “Some scientific modeling suggests that, if nothing is done to contain an outbreak of the disease, CWD could cause a local deer population’s demise within 20 to 25 years in states in high-density deer populations.”

Pennsylvania’s deer in many areas are already stressed from development. Should the always fatal disease infect the herd, it will take what sprawl hasn’t.

The 4,000 heads is a small fraction of the number of deer harvested during buck and doe seasons. Most years 6,000 or 7,000 are taken in Fayette alone. Random testing is just one prong to diagnose and prevent the spread of the disease, if it should be discovered. The other, more important, defense is the hundreds of thousands of hunters already in the woods. Hunters should not shoot or handle deer that appear sickly but should contact the Game Commission.