On Nov. 19, the Forum ran a story titled “West End hosts CWD research for deer.” In that story author Ken Jenks explained that Chronic Wasting Disease (CWD) is a prion disease, a neurological disease, that is rare but always fatal. CWD is not communicable between species, but certain species do have their own version of the disease.
This year, officials from Colorado Parks and Wildlife had set up a mandatory testing station at the intersection of highways 141 and 145. There, hunters are required to bring in skulls for pathological reporting, so that the state can look at data this year, compared to five years ago. The information helps assess the disease’s prevalence, and CPW representatives have said hunters play an important role.
Dilyn Alexander, of Norwood, had a buck tag for Unit 70, private land. A sophomore in college at Colorado Mesa University, she came home for a weekend during third season and brought a friend to join her. Late afternoon on Nov. 8, the girls went out with Alexander’s father, Brent Alexander.
The hunting party sighted what appeared to be a healthy animal, and the 19-year-old girl got him right at sunset with her father’s rifle.
Alexander said she and her dad, along with her brother Joshua who was also home for the weekend, skinned the buck that night. They thought he looked OK, but they noticed he didn’t have a lot of fat. Alexander said “there was still some fat,” and the buck “was not super skinny.” She said there was “nothing weird at all,” regarding his appearance.
Her brother looked at the buck’s teeth and estimated the animal to be 3 to 4 years old. Regarding rack, it was a 4X4.
The next day, Alexander ran the skull down the highway to the monitoring station, where they waited in line for a while. Many hunters were on site for required testing. Alexander said CPW officials cut a lymph node, as well as a tooth from her buck, and she filled out her paperwork. She also marked down where she got her deer on the map, so CPW had the required data. They inspected her tag, and then officials packaged everything up and sent it off.
Two weeks later, Alexander got the phone call from CPW: her buck tested positive for Chronic Wasting Disease.
It’s true that the night she shot him, they’d cut out tenderloins and placed them in the deep freeze. After the call, those were removed and thrown away. The rest of the meat had been sent to AT's in Nucla to be processed, and Alexander called them to let them know. AT's did recommend they discard it.
Alexander said while her family knows there’s not been CWD from deer transmitted to humans, nobody feels good about consuming it.
“It’s kind of a bummer,” she agreed. “We had a full freezer, and now not so much. I had a tag and everything, and I don’t really get to replace that. It’s unfortunate. It’s an expensive draw to get the tag … ”
Alexander said the state will partially refund the processing of meat, but nothing else.
As far as the deer sausage that her family typically has made and enjoys, there’s nothing they can do about that.
