Chronic wasting disease is becoming more prevalent among deer in Pennsylvania. What you need to know

Pennsylvania’s abundant deer population is one of its most striking natural features.

According to Penn State University , the state averages about 30 deer per square mile of land. However, an infectious disease poses a growing threat to Pennsylvania’s deer herds, one that eventually destroys deer’s brains, making them weaker, dumber and eventually killing them outright.

Chronic wasting disease, or CWD , is a contagious neurodegenerative disease, similar to mad cow disease, and affects the family of animals that includes deer, elk, moose and caribou.

CWD was discovered in 1967 and first detected in Pennsylvania in 2012, although the state began testing for it in 1998. It is currently known to be in 25 states and multiple countries across the globe, and its prevalence continues to grow