Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks submitted nearly 7,000 samples for chronic wasting disease testing during the 2019 season, with 142 of those testing positive for the fatal disease.

The animals to test positive included 86 white-tailed deer, 53 mule deer, two moose and one elk, with the latter being Montana’s first detections in moose and wild elk. The season ran from April 1, 2019, to Jan. 29, 2020, according to a press release.

The state’s priority sampling areas in 2019 included Southeast Montana, the Philipsburg area, the Hi-Line area and the Libby area. Special chronic wasting disease hunts, which required testing of harvested deer, were held in the Libby and Moffat Bridge areas, according to the press release. FWP also offered free statewide testing to hunters who submitted their own samples.

Of the 6,977 total samples, 38% were collected from outside the priority sampling areas and about 15% were collected and submitted by hunters themselves.

In 2019, the agency detected new CWD-positive areas in Northwest Montana in Libby, Southwest Montana near Sheridan and Twin Bridges, and in Eastern and Southeastern Montana. In addition, the state agency expanded the boundaries of known CWD-positive areas with new detections south of U.S. 2 along the Hi-Line, and north of the Yellowstone River in Southcentral Montana.

In the town of Libby, 13% of hunter-harvested or trapped white-tailed deer were positive for CWD, and 4% were positive outside of town within the Libby CWD Management Zone.

Since FWP’s renewed surveillance efforts in 2017, when the disease was first discovered in the wild in Montana, the state agency has tested 11,020 samples statewide.

With the main sampling season over, FWP will review management strategies and other collected information to make plans for the next necessary steps in managing the disease. The agency will continue to collect samples from symptomatic animals throughout the year.

In addition to the state’s sampling efforts of wild cervids, the Montana Department of Livestock reported in January that a single game-farm elk in Eastern Montana tested positive for CWD. The disease has not been identified in domestic cervids in Montana since 1999 and the department placed the herd under quarantine and is conducting an epidemiological investigation.

Chronic wasting disease is a fatal disease that can affect the nervous system of deer, elk and moose. Transmission most commonly occurs through direct contact between animals, including urine, feces, saliva, blood and antler velvet. According to the press release, carcasses of infected animals may serve as a source of environmental contamination as well and can infect other animals that come into contact with that carcass.

There is no known transmission of the disease to humans; however, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends that hunters who harvest an animal in an area where CWD is known to be present have their animal tested. If the animal tests positive, the organization advises against eating the meat.