1. United States
2. N.J.
3. Letter

Ensure that chronic wasting disease in wild game is handled and managed correctly in New Jersey! The contagious and always-fatal neurodegenerative disorder infects the cervid family that includes deer, elk, moose and, in higher latitudes, reindeer. There is no vaccine or treatment. Described by scientists as a “slow-motion disaster in the making”, the infection’s presence in the wild began quietly, with a few free-ranging deer in Colorado and Wyoming in 1981. However, it has now reached wild and domestic game animal herds in 36 US states as well as parts of Canada, wild and domestic reindeer in Scandinavia and farmed deer and elk in South Korea. Apart from the grave concerns about CWD reaching people, scientists describe it as “an existential threat” to wild cervid populations, which are central to American hunting traditions. Nowhere is there more at stake than in the region surrounding the country’s most famous nature preserve, Yellowstone. A new study that tracked 1,000 adult white-tailed deer and fawns in south-west Wisconsin mirrors what research elsewhere suggests: over time infected animals die at rates that outpace natural reproduction, meaning some populations could disappear. No animals have demonstrated immunity to CWD and there is no vaccine. If depopulating herds becomes necessary to reduce disease presence, it could have devastating consequences for people who rely on those animals and who have a connection to them. Studies show that having healthy wild carnivores on a landscape can help weed out sick CWD-carrying elk and deer, but states in the northern Rockies have adopted policies aimed at dramatically reducing wolves, bears and mountain lions.