(Editor's note - This is the second of a two-part story on Chronic Wasting Disease)

Chronic Wasting Disease is an infectious prion disease that affects deer, elk, mule deer, moose and reindeer. It was first recognized in the 1960s, and officials from the Pennsylvania Game Commission are part of nationwide efforts to learn more about the disease - how it spreads, how it affects deer and what it means for the future of wildlife management."CWD outbreaks in West Virginia and Wisconsin have resulted in exponential growth in the number of infected deer, both bucks and does," said Wayne Laroche, Director, Bureau of Wildlife Management, PGC."Research on whitetails and mule deer in southeastern Wyoming revealed documented population declines; in fact, researchers there have concluded that population extinctions could occur in a matter of decades."Dr. Dave Samuel, who taught wildlife biology at West Virginia University for more than thirty years, also writes the conservation column for Bowhunter Magazine and contributes articles in many magazines and newspapers. He's been writing about CWD for a long time."My concern all along was that prions were involved and similar prion brain diseases have been around for decades without a solution found," Samuel said. "They (the prions) are self-replicating and they are almost indestructible."When a CWD-positive deer passes prions via mucous, urine or feces, the prions remain in that location for years. Some infected deer initially will show little effects, but as prevalence in the population increases that changes. Laroche referred to the research in southeastern Wyoming, which was an eight-year study.In the Wyoming study, 29 percent of sampled deer had CWD in 1999. In 2003, that had jumped to 32 percent; by 2010, the number was 43 percent. And overall, from 2003 to 2010, the deer population declined by 10 percent.The study concluded that "CWD infection should be envisioned as a slow, progressive decline in health and alternation of normal behavior, which ends in clinically recognizable (body decline) disease."Pennsylvania has taken steps to isolate the disease, which has been found in Deer Management Area 2. In that area, feeding and baiting have been banned. It is also illegal to remove whole deer carcasses from the area; only meat and skull cap (with high risk parts removed) may be taken out of the area."The practices of feeding and baiting enhance the risk of transmitting CWD both from animal-to-animal contact as well as from environment-to-animal transmission where feeding areas have been contaminated by urine, saliva and feces," Laroche said."It has now been demonstrated that prions are taken up by plants and that susceptible animals eating those plants can become infected."Research is ongoing, but wildlife managers need to know more about CWD so that they can make progress towards sustainable containment and strategies for control.Research is already showing that once a deer population is heavily infected, populations do not thrive. But is it also imperative to minimize human exposure to the prions?We have five decades since the disease has been recognized and documented - and have built a solid foundation. But what direction should be taken in the decades to come? Is CWD a national crisis? Could it become a crisis in Pennsylvania?"I think we face a potential disaster from CWD unless our government makes some major research money available," Samuel said. "It's time for us to stir the pot."