Oklahoma’s fourth case of a wild deer infect‑ed with Chronic Wast‑ing Disease (CWD) was confirmed this month in the Oklahoma Pan‑handle. The white-tailed deer was located in Texas County after a landown‑er reported the animal behaving abnormally.

CWD is an always-fa‑tal neurological disease that affects deer, elk, moose, and other mem‑bers of the cervid fam‑ily, creating holes in the brain resembling those in sponges.

As part of the state’s CWD Response Strat‑egy, the confirmation has prompted the Okla‑homa Department of Wildlife Conserva‑tion to expand the ex‑isting Selective Surveil‑lance Area (SSA) for chronic wasting disease in Texas County west‑ward and southward. The CWD Response Strategy is a plan jointly produced by the Wild‑life Department along with the Oklahoma De‑partment of Agriculture, Food and Forestry.

Hunters who harvest a deer within the SSA boundary must comply with specific regula‑tions for handling and moving deer and other cervid parts outside the area. These boundary changes, along with cer‑vid transport rules with‑in an SSA, can be viewed at wildlifedepartment. com/hunting/resources/ deer//cwd/ssa. The site also includes informa‑tion about voluntary testing sites in Oklaho‑ma’s three active SSAs. Dispersed across SSAs in northwestern Okla‑homa, the testing sites are locations where hunters may choose to leave the head of their harvested deer or elk to be tested for CWD.

“The Wildlife De‑partment is implement‑ing its response plan to monitor and slow the potential spread of CWD,” Dallas Barber, wildlife biologist over big game for the Wildlife Department said. “Our priority is to continue to ensure the health and management of our deer herd in Oklahoma, and the steps in our CWD Response Strategy will help us do that.”

The Wildlife Depart‑ment has conducted CWD monitoring on hunter-harvested deer and elk and road-killed deer since 1999 follow‑ing the discovery of the disease in a private, commercial elk herd in 1998. The first in-state CWD case in free-rang‑ing deer was confirmed in June 2023 in Texas County. CWD does not affect pronghorn ante‑lope, and natural CWD transmission from wild animals to humans or livestock has never been documented.

Additional human health information re‑lating to CWD is avail‑able at https://www.usgs. gov/centers/nwhc/sci‑ence/ chronic-wastingdisease# publications. For more information on the disease, hunting regula‑tions, and proper disposal of infected animals, go to https://www.wildlifede‑partment. com/hunting/ resources/deer/cwd.