Tribal officials have identified a second case of chronic wasting disease on the Flathead Indian Reservation.

A sample from a white-tailed deer harvested Nov. 3 tested positive for the fatal neurological disease, according to the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes. The sample will undergo a second round of testing to confirm the findings, officials said on Thursday. 

The reservation recorded its first incidence of chronic wasting disease in January after a white-tailed deer harvested in the Hog Heaven Wildlife Management Unit east of Elmo tested positive. The case spurred tribal wildlife officials to mandate testing on all animals harvested from the Hog Heaven and Irvine wildlife management units. 

Chronic wasting disease is a 100% fatal neurological disorder that afflicts ungulates, including mule deer, white-tailed deer, elk and moose. Once established, the disease is nearly impossible to eradicate. Infected animals can survive for years, spreading the misfolded proteins that cause the disease through direct contact with other ungulates and through bodily fluids like blood, saliva and urine. 

State wildlife officials have identified nearly 2,700 cases of the disease since it was first detected in Montana’s wild herds in 2017, primarily through voluntary sampling programs for hunters. 

So far this season, 100 of the 2,368 samples submitted have tested positive for chronic wasting disease. Two samples from Hunting District 170, which includes much of the Flathead Valley, have tested positive as have a total of eight samples from hunting districts 100, 103 and 104.  

There are no known cases of chronic wasting disease transmission to humans, but the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention encourage hunters to test all animals from locations where it is known to occur and discourage eating any meat from infected animals.   

Reporter Hailey Smalley can be reached at 758-4433 or [email protected].