Wyoming confirms first case of chronic wasting disease inside an elk feedground – WyoFile

Wyoming wildlife managers on Wednesday reported an unwelcome first: The infectious prions that cause always-lethal chronic wasting disease have been detected within the boundaries of an elk feedground. 

The detection occurred at the base of the Wind River Range at the Scab Creek Feedground, about 15 miles east of Pinedale and within elk hunt area 98. A cow elk that tested positive for the degenerative neurological disease was found dead at the end of December.

“This is the third documented case of CWD in the hunt area and the first confirmed case of an elk testing positive on a feedground,” Wyoming Game and Fish Department officials stated in a notice alerting the public. 

None of the state agency’s personnel were able to be reached for an interview on short notice Wednesday afternoon. 

The Scab Creek Feedground is located on Bureau of Land Management property. The feedground’s population goal is 500 elk, though closer to 800 animals gathered at the site during two recent winters, according to Game and Fish’s recently completed elk feedground management plan.

Although it’s been known to occur in southeast Wyoming elk since 1986, chronic wasting disease is in the early stages of making inroads into Northwest Wyoming’s feedground region. The deadly malady was first found in the Jackson Herd in 2020, but since then it’s spread to the Pinedale, Piney, and, just recently, the Fall Creek herds. 

Although the incurable disease currently occurs at trace levels in feedground elk, that’s not expected to last. Scientific projections for CWD’s effects on elk populations are grim, especially if elk feeding — a historical practice that artificially concentrates animals — continues. Just last week, U.S. Geological Survey researchers completed an analysis that predicts the Jackson Elk Herd will decline by more than half if feeding continues on the National Elk Refuge. 

Projections for the future of elk herds attending state-run feedgrounds are also dismal, especially if feeding continues. Continued feeding of the Afton, Fall Creek, Piney, Pinedale and Upper Green River herds would lop those populations nearly in half, while contributing to CWD prevalence rates above 40%, according to 2023 USGS research. 

Wyoming Game and Fish’s management plan does not demand reforms to elk feedgrounds as a result of chronic wasting disease. The door, however, is open to changes or closures that will be prescribed through tertiary “feedground management action plans” that will be developed for two herds per year over the next three years. 

In 2025, the Jackson and Pinedale elk herds will be reviewed — the latter of which includes the Scab Creek Feedground. 

Part of the insidious nature of chronic wasting disease is that its vector — highly infectious misfolded proteins called prions — can live outside of animal hosts in soil and even absorb into grass. 

“Prions are known to bind to many soil types, and when bound to bentonite clay, infectivity is increased,” Wyoming’s feedground management plan states. “To limit the bioavailability of prions in the environment to cervids, substrate conversions of feeding areas should be considered.”