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Colorado wildlife officials studying CWD in deer

Chronic wasting disease has been called, "zombie deer" but there is a lot more to it than the nickname.
Chronic wasting disease has been called, "zombie deer" but there is a lot more to it than the nickname.

Chronic wasting disease has been called "zombie deer" but there is a lot more to it than the nickname.

The scientific term is Chronic Wasting Disease, or CWD. Deer, elk and moose will stop eating and get very thin. They eventually starve themselves to death.

Rebecca Farrell with Colorado Parks and Wildlife says it affects the brain and immune system. "The zombie thing is a bit of a misnomer because they’re not staggering, they’re not eating weird things," said Farrell, "they’re not eating at all."

You might find more animals with CWD in the northwest area of the state, where we have a lot of deer and elk.

Parks and Wildlife is now requiring hunters in select units to sample the meat for diseases.

Those sites have yet to be determined but hunters will be notified in a letter when they draw closer to hunting season.

If it comes back positive, they don't want you to eat it.

“There has been no crossover from a sick animal to a human who has eaten meat from an infected animal," said Farrell.

Parks and Wildlife has been studying the disease for the past 40 years. They're looking to understand it a little bit more to reduce the number of animals affected.

Parks and Wildlife want to remind folks not to feed wildlife. Animals will congregate around the food and that can help the disease spread.

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