After years of testing and regulations chronic wasting disease has been found at a Texas Parks and Wildlife Department facility.
A positive case of CWD was found in a 14-month-old captive male white-tailed deer at the Kerr Wildlife Management Area research facility, according to TPWD biologists.
“TPWD staff are disappointed to abruptly end nearly 50 years of white-tailed deer research that has significantly influenced deer management in Texas and across the country” said John Silovsky, Wildlife Division director. “Staff will continue to investigate opportunities to enhance the understanding of this insidious disease in both captive environments and free-ranging populations.”
The detection resulted from ante-mortem testing conducted on all captive white-tailed deer as part of ongoing research. Samples from the buck were sent to the National Veterinary Service Laboratory in Iowa for confirmation.
Out of an abundance of caution, the staff killed all the deer in the research facility and collected post-mortem samples, which resulted in no additional detections.
Built in 1974, the high-fenced research facility offers researchers facilities to study white-tailed deer in a controlled setting. The 23-acre facility now is double high fenced and consists of breeding and rearing enclosures, and a series of other structures that facilitate the safe handling of research animals.
The initial stock of deer in the research facility consisted of native Texas whitetails obtained from various locations throughout the state. TPWD did not routinely move deer into or out of the facility after that initial stocking.
The research herd has been maintained as a pedigreed herd investigating nutritional, age and genetic relationships in deer. Dr. James Kroll posted his reaction to the finding on social media.
“This area was double-fenced and a CWD test positive deer still appeared,” he wrote. “Maybe now there will be more acceptance of a spontaneous nature to this disease.”
Kevin Davis, the executive director of Texas Deer Association, said, “CWD detections are unfortunate for everybody. The detections in the Hollywood Park area of the greater San Antonio metroplex and at the Kerr WMA are an indication that this naturally occurring disease will be found where testing occurs at an adequate level. It is time for TPWD to change the way they manage CWD in Texas.”
The Kerr WMA has conducted CWD surveillance of its wild and captive deer herds since 2002. Surveillance efforts within the research facility totaled 242 regulatory tests since 2018. Wild deer harvested on the WMA through the public hunting program and field research since 2018 have provided an additional 259 regulatory tests with no detections.
TPWD intensified its investigations within the facility for the presence of CWD prions since May 8, when the agency received conflicting results — from a presumptive positive RT-QuIC amplification test and not-detected regulatory tests — on a female deer euthanized in January of this year. Assessments within the facility this summer included surveillance with swabs of equipment, water and feed sites paired with targeted euthanasia and tissue testing. Subsequent amplification and regulatory tests confirmed not-detected results on the 66 deer postmortem tested, as part of the investigation. Remaining individuals in the facility were screened with ante-mortem tonsil and rectal biopsies in October resulting in the positive detection from a tonsil biopsy on the 14-month-old male.
