Chronic Wasting Disease Has Been Detected in Yellowstone. That Could Be a Good Thing

I wiped my blood-smeared phone screen on a clean patch of T-shirt and pressed play. A big-game biologist from South Dakota started explaining the murky process of slicing a whitetail’s neck open at the throat.

I prodded the doe’s neck and cut into the white throat patch. Once I got through the windpipe, I made an “S” cut, as instructed. The folds of flesh and connective tissue in the video looked foreign compared to what lay in front of me. Performing a sloppy lymphadenectomy with only a YouTube video for guidance proved trickier than anticipated. But I wanted to know: Did this deer that I planned to butcher and eventually eat have chronic wasting disease

As I dug out what I hoped were the lymph nodes, it occurred to me how few people would understand why I felt the need to dissect the animal I had just killed. Even though the number of hunters who support CWD testing and research seems to be growing (and there are still plenty of hunters who think CWD concerns are overblown at best and a conspiracy at worst), the wider public isn’t in the loop. Odds are that a majority of Americans have either never heard of CWD, or don’t really care.

 

That could change if