CHRONIC PROBLEM

Chronic wasting disease (CWD) isn't going awway, and it turns out that it spreads "more easily among deer herds than originally thought, particularly when animals cluster together during the winter, according to wildlife researchers in Colorado and Wyoming. ...Miller and Williams noted that concentrating deer in captivity or feeding them artificially (baiting) in the wild made transmission of the disease more likely." But even if hunters could give up deer-baiting, it still might not be enough: "Prions, the infectious proteins believed to be at the root of chronic wasting disease, stick to some soil types, suggesting the landscape may serve as a reservoir for chronic wasting disease," a study found. Great. Just great.