Chronic Wasting Disease on the rise in Virginia deer
ROANOKE, Va. (WDBJ) - Chronic Wasting Disease (CWD) is rising in Virginia’s deer population, according to the yearly report from the Virginia Department of Wildlife Resources (DWR).
The 2024-2025 Chronic Wasting Disease report from DWR recorded 109 positive detections in the over 8,100 deer it tested across Virginia. In our hometowns, Roanoke County saw its first-ever recorded case of the disease.
“This is the first year that we’ve had more than 100 positive deer in a known testing season. So we have seen a little bit of an upward trend in the total number of positives,” said DWR State Wildlife Veterinarian John Tracey.
Chronic Wasting Disease is caused by an infectious protein similar to Mad Cow Disease in cattle. When a deer gets infected, there is an incubation period with no symptoms that can last anywhere from six months to three to four years before the clinical disease develops. Once the clinical disease develops, it progresses rapidly.
“That clinical disease is a chronic sort of slow progression of weight loss leading to emaciation, poor hair coats, lethargy, becoming unaware of humans, unaware of their surroundings, and eventually they waste away and die,” said Tracey.
The Department of Wildlife Resources tests deer tissue brought to them by hunters, venison processors, and taxidermists.
“The tissue that’s needed to test for CWD are the retropharyngeal lymph nodes, which are a set of lymph nodes on the base of the tongue in the head. Once we harvest tissues, we need to send those off to the lab for testing,” said Tracey.
The disease is transmitted from deer to deer by saliva and fecal material.
“It can stick in around in the soil for a long time. So the more environmental contamination you get, then the more opportunity you have for indirect transmission where it’s deer to environment to deer,” said Tracey.
CWD was first detected in Virginia in 2009 in Fredrick County. The majority of this year’s confirmed CWD cases were in Northwestern Virginia. CWD was first recorded in our hometowns in Montgomery County in 2020. This year, Montgomery County had seven confirmed cases, Floyd County had five, and Roanoke County had its first-ever case.
“The finding of the positive in Roanoke County was a bit of a concern for us, just because we haven’t had it there. Not that it’s that unexpected, we have it in nearby areas in Montgomery and Floyd counties, but it’s never good to find it in new counties where you don’t know it to exist,” said Tracey.
Carroll, Floyd, Franklin, Montgomery, Patrick, Pulaski, Roanoke, and Wythe counties are all part of DWR’s Disease Management Area 3.
“There won’t be any regulatory changes or anything that hunters have to change with the disease being detected in Roanoke, because that county was already inside the DMA due to detections in adjacent counties,” said Tracey.
Hunters in the disease management area are encouraged to get any deer they harvest tested for CWD when hunting season returns.
While the overall number of cases is still very low, the DWR is focused on the long-term prevention of the spread.
“We take it very seriously to try to do what we can to prevent the human-assisted movement to new areas, to prevent the accumulation of affected deer in specific areas, and then really just allow the research to catch up,” said Tracey.
There have been no known instances of CWD being transmitted to humans or livestock. However, Tracey said to be safe, you shouldn’t eat the meat of a deer that has tested positive for the disease.
Copyright 2025 WDBJ. All rights reserved.