Genetic research could save Texas deer with chronic wasting disease

When a captive Texas deer tests positive for chronic wasting disease, it can mean the deaths of every deer in the herd. “If it’s positive, we’re out of business,” said John True, a deer breeder and the president of the Texas Deer Association. “It’s a death sentence on numerous levels.” A Texas A&M researcher thinks his work might be able to change that. Chronic wasting disease, commonly called CWD but sometimes referred to in the media as the “zombie deer disease,” is a prion disease, similar to scrapie in sheep and goats or mad cow disease in cows. In Texas, there are regulations in place to prevent a CWD-positive deer from spreading the disease to other deer. Breeders say the regulations are overly aggressive, but the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department says they are just meant to protect the overall deer population.

Christopher Seabury, an animal genetics researcher and a professor at A&M, is studying the genetic components of CWD. His research, when applied, could help ranchers selectively breed deer that are less likely to contract CWD, eventually crafting a herd that’s less susceptible to the disease. Seabury hopes that, at some point, breeders who discover CWD in their herds might be able to routinely respond with something other than “depopulation,” which is the formal term for killing an entire herd. “I think that in the future we will learn to manage and reduce the prevalence of CWD, and live with it knowing that it’s out there, but I think that we will have alternatives to full depopulation,” Seabury said. Some breeders are skeptical of the idea, in part because the research is funded by two government organizations — Texas Parks and Wildlife and the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Some breeders see the agencies as hostile to the deer breeding industry. But other breeders are excited about the potential that the research holds, the possibility that it could lift death sentences for deer across Texas.