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Deer Population In Kansas Being Tested For Fatal Disease

Wikipedia

The deer population in south-central Kansas is being tested for a fatal disease.

As The Wichita Eagle reports, two deer from Stafford County tested positive for chronic wasting disease – or CWD -  a contagious disease that’s always fatal to deer, elk and moose.

Shane Hesting, wildlife disease coordinator for Kansas Department of Wildlife, Parks and Tourism, said biologists are hoping to test samples from 458 deer from south-central Kansas during the ongoing deer seasons to check on the spread of the disease.

Thirteen deer from other parts of the state – mostly from western Kansas – tested positive for the disease. It has also been documented in all northwest Kansas counties and as far east as Jewell County in north central Kansas.

Hesting and Justin Greenlee, a research veterinarian at the National Animal Disease Center in Ames, Iowa, think the disease will continue it’s way eastward across Kansas, and may come in from other borders.