Chronic wasting disease reaches Indiana

Chronic wasting disease has been detectWhited in a wild deer in Indiana—the last Midwestern state believed to be free of the disease. The infected deer was discovered in early April as part of a state program that works with taxidermists to help in sampling efforts, Outdoor Life reports.

Indiana Department of Natural Resources officials say the deer was harvested in the 2023 season by a hunter in LaGrange County, near the border with Michigan, where the fatal prion disease had been detected previously.

“We had done prior intensive surveillance in that area,” IDNR deer program lead and biologist Joe Caudell told Outdoor Life. “This is one of those areas that we were always keeping an eye on. We wanted to make sure we had taxidermists participating there, and when we got sick deer calls from that area we were always on a little bit higher alert, because of that proximity to Michigan.”

The prion disease is always fatal to cervids, including deer, elk and moose. It has been detected in 34 states and four provinces.

Read more from Outdoor Life.