It was mid-April when wildlife managers put down a thin, discombobulated cow elk stumbling around on Wyoming’s National Elk Refuge. After observing classic signs of severe illness, managers overseeing one of the country’s largest over-wintering ranges had their worst fears confirmed after testing later confirmed the animal was positive for chronic wasting disease.
This marks the first confirmed case of CWD in an elk on the National Elk Refuge and the first documented detection in Wyoming Elk Hunt Area 77. Wildlife managers have long anticipated (and dreaded) this development for the roughly 11,000-strong Jackson Elk Herd, which spends their winters on the refuge.
“Any time we detect chronic wasting disease on a feedground, it’s a big deal,” Hank Edwards, the retired supervisor of the state wildlife health lab said. “What worries me about this detection is that because this animal was euthanized, it was in the end stages.”
As many of us know by now, CWD is a highly contagious, always-fatal neurological prion disease that affects deer, elk, and moose, causing progressive brain degeneration, leading to wasting, behavioral changes, and eventual death. The disease spreads through bodily fluids, saliva, urine, and feces, and prions can persist in the environment for years — raising particular concerns in areas where elk congregate densely, such as the refuge’s supplemental feeding areas.
The refuge provides critical winter habitat and, in harsher years, supplemental feed for thousands of elk and bison. Given the mild conditions of this past winter, it was only the 11th winter in the refuge’s 114-year history that did not require supplemental feeding, but the setup has always been a transmission party waiting to happen.
The disease has been creeping through western Wyoming and the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem for years now. It made landfall in a Teton County mule deer back in 2018, was confirmed in elk in Grand Teton by 2020, and has been lighting up state feedgrounds more recently.
In a joint announcement, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and Wyoming Game and Fish Department stated they plan to increase surveillance and monitoring. As for refuge staff, they plan to follow their pre-existing CWD Response Strategy, which includes enhanced sampling, biosecurity measures, and program reevaluation.
For the broader herd, the detection raises questions about long-term population health, especially if the disease becomes established. Some modeling has projected significant declines under continued high-density winter conditions, once again igniting ongoing regional debates about the future of elk feedgrounds in Wyoming.
For now, wildlife officials encourage the public to report any elk showing unusual behavior on or near the refuge.
