Chronic wasting disease is spreading through deer and elk populations in North America, causing progressive suffering that raises significant wildlife welfare concerns.
Chronic wasting disease causes profound suffering for individual affected animals. The disease progresses over months to years, producing progressive weight loss, behavioral changes, loss of coordination, and eventually inability to eat or walk. Affected deer lose condition dramatically, becoming emaciated and socially withdrawn. They may become habituated to humans in a way that signals neurological deterioration rather than tameness. The extended disease course means animals suffer for sustained periods before death. The spreading geographic range of CWD means this welfare problem affects increasing numbers of wild deer and elk. Wildlife managers face difficult questions about whether culling measures that reduce transmission also serve individual animal welfare by preventing prolonged suffering.