A deer in Quebec has tested positive for chronic wasting disease, the closest that the equivalent of “mad cow disease” for deer and moose has been found to New Hampshire and Vermont, increasing concern from wildlife officials about keeping the fatal ailment out of the state.
According to New Hampshire Fish and Game, a red deer from a captive facility in the Laurentides region of Quebec, north of Montreal, recently tested positive for chronic wasting disease, the province’s first confirmed case. This finding represents the closest confirmed case of CWD to date, which “poses a much greater threat to the state’s deer and moose populations than past cases of the disease elsewhere in North America,” according to a statement from Fish and Game.
Chronic wasting disease is an ailment of the brain and spinal column roughly similar to “mad cow disease.”
Quebec now is legally classified as a CWD-positive jurisdiction, meaning that hunters cannot bring whole carcasses of cervids (members of the deer family including moose, deer, elk and caribou, as well as any species of captive deer) killed in Quebec back to the states.
To date, CWD has been detected in 25 states and three Canadian provinces. It was found in New York, although that state has since been declared free of the disease, making Pennsylvania the closest area until the Quebec finding.
During the fall deer hunting season, state and federal officials collect heads and extract samples from hunter-killed deer across the state for testing.
“All it takes is for one piece of contaminated material to be brought across our state border. … This is why it is vital that hunters do all they can to help our herd stay CWD free,” Fish and Game said.
For more information, check huntnh.com/wildlife/cwd.