What is Chronic Wasting Disease?
Chronic Wasting Disease (CWD) is a neurological disease that affects the brains of deer, elk, moose, and other members of the deer family. Misfolded proteins called prions create microscopic holes in the brain that resemble a sponge when viewed under a microscope.
The disease leads to severe weight loss, lack of coordination, drooling and behavioral changes like loss of fear, giving it the nickname “zombie deer disease”.
The disease spreads when animals are in close contact, but also when animals contact soil that contains prions from urine, feces, saliva or an infected animal’s carcass.
CWD is always fatal to the animal. There is no vaccine or treatment against the disease.
CWD has been confirmed in wild deer and/or elk in Oklahoma and surrounding states including Texas, New Mexico, Colorado, Kansas, Missouri, and Arkansas.
CWD transmission to humans or livestock has not been documented. However, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends, as a precaution, that people or animals do not eat any part of an animal diagnosed with or showing signs of CWD.
CWD in Oklahoma
ODWC’s primary objective is to minimize the CWD risk to Oklahoma's wild deer, elk, and other susceptible cervids within our borders.
Oklahoma’s CWD timeline:
1998: CWD was confirmed in a captive elk herd in Oklahoma County. The elk had originally been imported from Montana. The U.S. Department of Agriculture euthanized the herd to decrease the threat of the disease spreading into the surrounding free-ranging deer herd.
2019: CWD was confirmed in one farmed elk in Lincoln County. ODWC increased disease surveillance and monitoring in areas adjacent to the breeding facility.
2022: A road-killed deer infected with CWD was found 2.5 miles south of the Oklahoma-Texas border near Felt in southwestern Cimarron County. With the proximity of this infected deer to Oklahoma's border, ODWC activated its CWD Response Strategy. This includes the designation of Selective Surveillance Areas (SSA).
Go to Selective Surveillance Areas (SSA)
June 6, 2023: In Texas County CWD was confirmed for the first time in a free-ranging wild deer. This case marks the first time the disease has been detected in laboratory testing of tissue samples from more than 10,000 wild deer and elk throughout Oklahoma. This is the first case of CWD in a wild deer in Oklahoma.
2023: A wild deer was confirmed to be infected with CWD. The deer was located about 15 miles east of Woodward in Woodward County.
2024: A deer near Felt tested positive for CWD. The existing Cimarron County SSA was expanded.
2025: CWD was confirmed in a wild deer in the Oklahoma Panhandle.
2025: A hunter harvested a deer infected with CWD less than four miles east of the Oklahoma-Arkansas border near McCurtain County. With the proximity of this infected deer to Oklahoma's border, ODWC activated its CWD Response Strategy.
ODWC actively reviews and updates its response strategy to align with emerging scientific research. ODWC also coordinates with the Oklahoma Department of Agriculture, Food and Forestry, and other agencies to monitor the state’s captive cervid herds and provide information to the public as it becomes available.
Importation of Cervid Carcasses or Carcass Parts
No person shall import, transport, or possess any cervid carcass or part of a cervid carcass from outside the boundaries of Oklahoma. The following items are the only exceptions:
- Antlers or antlers attached to clean skull plate or cleaned skulls (all tissue removed);
- Animal quarters containing no spinal materials, or meat with all parts of the spinal column removed;
- Cleaned teeth;
- Finished taxidermy products;
- Hides or tanned products;
- Harvested deer, elk or other cervidae if they are going to a taxidermist in good standing with the Secretary of State