Disease management in wild deer populations raises complex welfare questions about when and how to intervene in natural disease processes.
Disease management in wild deer requires balancing welfare for individual animals against population health and disease transmission concerns. Chronic wasting disease causes progressive neurological deterioration and eventual death in affected individuals - a welfare harm that affects increasing numbers of deer as the disease spreads. Population density reduction through culling reduces transmission but causes its own welfare harms through management procedures. The development of effective, deliverable vaccines would transform the welfare options available for deer disease management, potentially allowing population health improvement without reliance on lethal control.