Wasting disease response showing signs of promise

Colorado Parks and Wildlife’s efforts to combat chronic wasting disease in big game continue to show some promise, though it will take many more years before the agency will be able to better gauge the effectiveness of its approach, which focuses on changes in hunting licensing and harvest numbers.

The agency has been making use of mandatory testing of hunter-harvested animals for the lethal disease in various regions on a rotating basis, and has been doing that long enough that retesting has occurred for some herds, which is helping it gauge what effect its response has been having.

“Results provide the first indication of whether CWD management actions taken for deer over the past 5-7 years have had an effect on CWD prevalence (estimated percent infected) in each herd. In summary, CWD