CWD Resistance In Deer

Chronic Wasting Disease is a disease among deer that is greatly feared by many, including the DNR and our regulatory bodies. We’ve all heard of it, but few really understand it. In reality, there’s a lot more fiction and conjecture out there on the subject than there is full scientific understanding and consensus.

Why do we care about CWD?

Well, in addition to the obvious (it kills deer), it will kill your entire business overnight. Not only that, it could affect all your customers, your suppliers, and depending on what state you’re in, it could affect multiple counties in every direction. It’s a big deal.

If you’re a deer farm or ranch and one positive case of CWD is found on your property, the DNR will come in and kill all of your deer - the entire herd. Additionally, they’ll attempt to trace where deer from your pen went (after being sold), and where they came from (if you purchased deer). What this means for ranches and farms buying deer is that you have to be incredibly careful about what forms you buy from, as a single case of CWD could shut you down overnight.

What are we doing about cwd?

The deer farming community—and Wide and High Whitetails especially—has been working to advance the knowledge base we have when it comes to Chronic Wasting Disease, and leading studies that have led to breakthroughs in our understanding of the disease. One of the biggest leaps we’ve made in understanding is that some deer are have genetic markers that make them significantly more or less likely to contract the disease. What this means is that we can now, through strategic breeding, develop a herd of deer that is resistant to contracting CWD. And that’s what we’re doing here at Wide and High.

Developing a CWD Resistant Deer herd

We have made a commitment to build and maintain a deer herd on our farm that is entirely genetically CWD-resistant. Only a small percentage of deer have the right set of alleles that have shown genetic resistance to contracting the disease, and since 2021, all of our breeding has been done exclusively with CWD resistant deer.

We have a significant amount of heavy scientific research that has backed this decision, and we’re happy to discuss it with you if you’re interested in learning more about this.

Another interesting challenge to the status quo of CWD is it’s origin and method of spread. If you’re truly interested, our journey to address CWD started with this article. We recommend everyone read it.