Associated Press A white-tailed deer is shown from the tour road at Saratoga Battlefield Park in Saratoga, N.Y. Two deer herds in New York have been found to have Chronic Wasting Disease. Click photo for larger image. Chronic Wasting Disease Facts What is CWD? A spongiform enchepahalopathy characterized by spongy deterioration of the brain tissue. What wildlife species are affected? Deer, elk and moose. How is CWD spread? Transmission is not completely understood, but may be linked to contact with urine, saliva or feces of infected animals. The spread is more likely among high density populations. What are the symptoms? Listlessness, chronic thirst, excessive salivation, drooping of the head, disheveled coat. Always fatal. Are humans at risk? There is no proof that humans can contract CWD, but hunters are cautioned against handling or eating the brain, spinal cord, eyes or lymph nodes of deer or elk. Has CWD been found in Pennsylvania? No.

The New York Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) has confirmed that Chronic Wasting Disease has been found among two separate captive deer herds in Oneida County in central New York.

On March 31, the DEC announced that a six-year-old doe from an Oneida deer farm tested positive for the mysteriously spread, always fatal disease. Two days later, officials reported that another CWD-positive deer had been confirmed from another captive herd nearby. Sources report that both herds are kept near the town of Westmoreland, and that the owner of one of the facilities is a licensed wildlife rehabilitator who may have cared for injured or orphaned wild deer at the same facility.

Those same sources indicate they do not know if any of those deer were returned to the wild, but, when asked about the release of wild deer that were potentially exposed to Chronic Wasting Disease (CWD), chief of wildlife for DEC, Gerry Barnhart said, "It was a possibility."

Westmoreland, N.Y., is about 75 miles north of the Pennsylvania border via I-81 and I-90. The New York cases are the first confirmed in the eastern United States. CWD was first recognized in 1967 in a deer research facility in Colorado. The disease kept a low profile for more than a decade, then appeared among captive deer in Wyoming in 1978. It showed up in Colorado wild elk herds in 1981, then erupted, mostly in captive elk and wild mule deer, in several western states in the mid-1990s. In 2002, the disease was confirmed among wild deer in Wisconsin and captive herds in Illinois.

Wildlife disease experts believe the transport of deer and elk between farms and breeding operations is responsible for CWD showing up in widely separated parts of North America. Pennsylvania has nearly 700 deer and elk farms within its borders, but the disease has never been detected here.

CWD is a form of transmissible spongiform encephalopathy that can spread among wild and captive members of the deer family, including deer, elk, and moose. The disease is not completely understood, but scientists believe proteins called prions in infected animals' brains are somehow transformed into an abnormal form that cause degeneration of brain tissue. Symptoms include poor posture, lowered head and ears, rough and disheveled coat, uncoordinated movement, chronic thirst, excessive drooling and ultimately death. There is no vaccine to protect the animals, and no way to test for the disease without killing an animal to analyze its brain stem.

So far, CWD does not appear to be transmissible to domestic livestock and there is no proof that humans can contract the disease, even after eating the meat of infected deer. Wildlife agencies, however, do issue sensible cautions to hunters about the use of deer from known CWD-infected areas. Hunters are advised not to handle or eat any part of the brain, spinal cord, eyes or lymph nodes.

The rash of sick and dead deer found in Greene and Washington counties two years ago were definitely diagnosed with epizootic hemorrhagic disease that is not related to CWD.

Local sources report that the first New York CWD case was found after meat from the doe was donated to a wild game dinner in March and the head sent to DEC for testing, as required by regulation.

New York had imposed a ban on importing captive deer and elk into the state in April 2002, but CWD's pathology is poorly understood and officials say it is possible the disease could have been present in New York before the ban. DEC officials said on Thursday that a de-population effort was being launched to kill at least 420 deer within a 10-mile radius of the infected farms for testing.

All states where deer and deer hunting are important parts of the culture and the economy are concerned about CWD. A recent audit of privately owned deer farms and breeding facilities in Michigan found that only 63 percent were in compliance with regulations concerning record keeping and transport of captive deer.

Following the discovery of CWD in Wisconsin, wildlife officials enlisted the aid of hunters and landowners to eliminate the disease, by eradicating the deer herd in two different areas covering parts of 12 counties near the state's southern border. Wisconsin DNR encouraged shooting periods in summer months, opened the deer season from September to March and instituted a system to pay hunters for killing deer in the affected areas. Of 19,000 deer shot in the Disease Eradication Zone last year, 130 tested positive for CWD.

Pennsylvania Game Commission officials collected heads from 3,699 deer during the 2004 seasons and sent them to the University of Pennsylvania veterinary diagnostics laboratory for CWD testing. None of the Pennsylvania deer were found to be infected with CWD. All the elk killed in the 2004 Pennsylvania season also tested negative for the disease.

However, Game Commission spokesman Jerry Feaser said the agency went on increased alert after the CWD-infected deer were found in New York.

Representatives from the Game Commission and the Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture listened to a conference-call news briefing held by New York officials from the departments of Agriculture and Markets and DEC on March 31.

"We truly appreciate the openness with which New York officials are handling this most unfortunate situation," said Pennsylvania Game Commission executive director Vern Ross. "This has enabled the Game Commission and Pennsylvania's other CWD Task Force members to monitor the ongoing process of evaluating the New York cases, while at the same time determining what course of action is necessary for our state."

Anyone who sees Pennsylvania deer or elk behaving oddly, that appear to be sick, or that are dying for unknown reasons are urged to contact the nearest Game Commission Region Office. The animal should not be killed.

"We are very serious about preventing CWD from entering Pennsylvania," said Game Commission Bureau of wildlife management assistant director Bob Boyd, who has been overseeing the agency's wildlife disease issues. "Some scientific modeling suggests that, if nothing is done to contain an outbreak of the disease, CWD could cause a local deer population's demise within 20 to 25 years in states with high-density deer populations, such as Pennsylvania.