Chronic wasting disease (CWD) is a fatal prion disease spreading through elk and deer populations across North America, causing a slow, agonizing death and threatening the ecological role of these animals.
CWD causes a prolonged, agonizing death in elk. The neurological deterioration leads to months of increasing confusion, difficulty eating and drinking, wasting, weakness, and progressive loss of normal behaviors. Affected animals often stand apart from the herd in exposed positions, vulnerable to predation and extreme weather. The disease appears to cause genuine suffering throughout its course - animals lose weight despite seemingly normal early behavior, and neurological symptoms worsen steadily. As CWD spreads to new areas, the welfare impact on wild ungulate populations grows. Thousands of elk die slow deaths from this disease each year.