Chronic wasting disease (CWD) is a fatal prion disease spreading through North American deer populations, causing prolonged neurological deterioration that raises significant individual welfare concerns alongside conservation and public health implications.
CWD causes prolonged neurological deterioration that resembles human prion diseases in its progressive, fatal course. Affected deer experience behavioral disorientation, loss of fear of humans, drooling, and progressive weakness over months before death. The inability to provide treatment means that once infected, animals face a prolonged dying process with declining neurological function. From an individual welfare perspective, CWD deaths are among the most protracted forms of natural mortality in wild deer. Management responses including culling of affected or exposed deer may be welfare-positive for individuals showing clinical signs, but population-level culling raises its own welfare considerations.