N.C. negative for chronic wasting disease
Testing of more than 2,300 deer during the 2019-2020 sampling season did not detect any cases of chronic wasting disease in North Carolina.
Testing came from samples collected statewide by hunters, meat processors, taxidermists, road-kills and deer showing symptoms of disease.
The N.C. Wildlife Resources Commission has been testing for CWD since 1999, increasing surveillance efforts after the disease was recorded east of the Mississippi River in 2002. Systemic statewide surveillance began in 2003 in five-year intervals, with some opportunistic sampling occurring in intervening years. In 2018, biologists implemented a revised annual surveillance strategy by increasing the number of samples collected and targeting sources such as road kill and older deer more likely to carry CWD.
To date, no cases have been detected in the more than 13,700 samples collected and tested in North Carolina to date.
CWD is a transmissible, always fatal, neurological disease that affects deer and other cervids such as elk, moose and caribou. Currently, four Canadian provinces and 26 states, including neighbors Tennessee and Virginia, have documented cases.
