A neurological disease that is always fatal in white tail deer is creeping closer to the WLDS/WEAI listening area.
The Illinois Department of Natural Resources announced today that chronic wasting disease, or CWD, has been detected in Adams, Putnam, Marshall, and Peoria counties.
IDNR officials say the new findings are expanding the geographic presence of the disease in free-ranging deer populations in northern Illinois. Adams County is the first documented case recorded outside of the leading edge of the CWD endemic region.
Chronic Wasting Disease is an always-fatal neurological disease that affects the long-term health of white-tailed deer in Illinois.
First documented in Illinois in 2002 near Roscoe, CWD has been detected in 25 counties across northern Illinois and now as far south as Adams County in west-central Illinois.
While the World Health Organization and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have not linked CWD to human transmission, they recommend against eating meat from CWD-positive deer.
Hunters are encouraged to have their deer tested and avoid consuming brain, spinal cord, eyes, and other tissues known to harbor the CWD agent. For more information on Chronic Wasting Disease management in Illinois, go to dnr.illinois.gov/programs