Webinar: Navigating Chronic Wasting Disease

Navigating Chronic Wasting Disease Webinar (Recorded April 1, 2025)

On, Tuesday, April 1, 2025 from 4:30-5:30pm CT, we held our webinar on Navigating Chronic Wasting Disease: A Presentation on Recent Advances by Dr. Peter Larsen. We co-hosted the webinar with the Wisconsin Wildlife Federation.

During the webinar, our presenter Dr. Larsen of the Minnesota Center for Prion Research & Outreach (MNPRO) shared information about:

• how the prions that cause chronic wasting disease (CWD) work
• challenges for CWD surveillance in wild deer populations
• new research and diagnostic tools to track and manage CWD
• ongoing outreach and partnerships, including citizen science and the role of hunters

After Dr. Larsen’s presentation, we had a Q&A session with members of the audience.

You can learn more about Dr. Larsen’s work and contact him here.

Watch the Webinar Recording:

Watch the recording of the webinar in the embedded video below or on WGF’s YouTube channel.

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Some Quick Facts about Chronic Wasting Disease (CWD)

What is CWD?

CWD is a fatal, contagious, neurodegenerative disease that affects members of the deer family. CWD is caused by a misfolded protein called a prion and belongs in a group of diseases known as transmissible spongiform encephalopathies. As of early 2025, CWD has been confirmed in wild, free-ranging cervids in 36 states and four Canadian provinces across North America.

What does CWD do to deer?

A deer infected with CWD goes through an incubation period and may not show any symptoms or signs of being infected for several months or even years. Eventually, CWD causes deterioration of the brain and nervous tissue, resulting in emaciation, excessive drooling, abnormal behavior, loss of bodily functions, and eventually death.

How is CWD spread?

CWD can be transmitted from deer-to-deer through contact with saliva, blood, urine, and feces. Prions can also persist in the environment from the natural decomposition of CWD-infected deer carcasses. CWD prions are extremely resistant to normal methods of disinfection and are very difficult to destroy once in the environment.

Prions can bind to the soil and other particulate matter and remain viable for years or even decades. Human activity has likely been the primary cause of long-distance spread of CWD. Humans can contribute to the spread of CWD by transporting CWD-infected animals from one place to another. This includes the transport of deer or deer parts that are harvested during the hunting season and the sale of live deer, deer parts, and deer products (e.g., urine, antlers) by the captive deer farm industry.

Can CWD affect people?

There seems to be a relatively strong species barrier between CWD-infected cervids and humans. Yet, the risk to humans is not zero. Other types of prion diseases have made the jump to humans, causing symptoms similar to dementia. We do not yet have a full understanding of the long-term effects that exposure and/or consumption might have on humans. Currently health officials recommend against handling or consuming any meat from animals that could be infected with CWD.

Learn More about CWD

1. Read more about CWD research at MNPRO.
2. Read more about CWD testing and management from the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources (WDNR).
3. View the WDNR’s interactive CWD map.

CWD has been an important topic for us at Wisconsin’s Green Fire since our founding.

Read more about our work on CWD below. Join us to get involved!

• 2018: Comment to DNR on Deer Quotas and Hunting Seasons
• 2018: Comments to Natural Resources Board on 2018 deer season
• 2018: WGF Testimony to NRB on CWD
• 2018: WGF Testimony to JCRAR on CWD Emergency Rules, Green Fire testifies on CWD Emergency Rules
• 2019: Comments on WDNR Chronic Wasting Disease Guidance on Responding to New Detections in Wild Deer – October 2019
• 2020: Antlerless Deer Quotas and Hunting Seasons: Comments to Natural Resources Board
• 2020: Russ Feingold: Wisconsin’s Green Fire is a Critical Voice for Chronic Wasting Disease Research
• 2021: Meeting Wisconsin’s Deer Conservation Challenges – Wisconsin’s Green Fire Opportunities Now July 2021 Report
• 2021: WGF Sponsors Deer Dumpsters to Slow Spread of Chronic Wasting Disease
• 2021: How [your state name here] might avoid losing its deer herd to Chronic Wasting Disease like Wisconsin
• 2022: WGF Sponsors Deer Dumpsters to Slow Spread of Chronic Wasting Disease
• 2023: WGF Presents at CWD Symposium in Colorado
• 2024: WGF Sponsors Two Deer Dumpsters for 2024

Contact Us

Please contact us to follow up about the content of the webinar, connect with the panelists and WGF staff, or to ask other questions about our work on forest conservation.

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