Robert J. Pavuchak, Post-Gazette A young doe, foraging for food, helps herself to sunflower seeds at a birdfeeder in West Mifflin.

By Ben Moyer Now is when deer elicit a love-hate response. Snow still lies deep across much of the state, especially in the mountains and northern counties. Deer have been plodding through it for more than a month. Often the deer congregate around homes where they glean easy meals from shrubbery and landscape plantings. Rhododendron and laurel planted around many homes are shredded and stripped.

Some homeowners are frustrated and tempted to ignore the law and declare open season on deer. Others feel sorry for the animals and want to give them a handout.

The Pennsylvania Game Commission's wildlife veterinarian says, "don't feed them."

At a recent presentation to the board of commissioners, Dr. Walter Cottrell said feeding deer in winter could artificially increase deer densities and spread disease.

Cottrell's main concern was the specter of spreading Chronic Wasting Disease among state herds. CWD has never been confirmed in Pennsylvania deer, but it has been found within 75 miles of the state's borders in New York, and within 30 miles of Pennsylvania in Hampshire County, West Virginia.

Twelve other states have confirmed CWD in deer, including Montana, South Dakota, Colorado, Wyoming, Nebraska, New Mexico, Utah, Wisconsin, Illinois, Oklahoma and Kansas.

CWD is a transmissible and always fatal neurological disorder, pathologically similar to "mad cow disease," that can spread among members of the deer family. The disease is poorly understood but scientists believe proteins called "prions" in infected animals' brains are somehow transformed into an abnormal form. 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 practical way to test for the disease without killing an animal to analyze its brain stem.

A related brain malady called Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease is known to occur in humans, but there is no known link to CWD in deer. Cottrell said a comprehensive review of public health records from Colorado counties where CWD was known to exist in deer showed no increase in the incidence of Creutzfeldt-Jakob in humans.

A rash of sick and dead deer found in Greene and Washington counties four years ago were diagnosed with Epizootic Hemorrhagic Disease, which is not related to CWD.

Cottrell went so far as to recommend that the Game Commission ban artificial deer feeding.

"Feeding wild deer is the one risk factor remaining that we can, but have not yet, addressed," he said.

West Virginia has banned deer feeding in the infected area and Virginia now bans deer feeding during the winter.

One concern is that CWD may already be in Pennsylvania's deer herd, undetected and feeding could promote its spread. If CWD is in Pennsylvania, it could have been brought into the state in captive deer or elk kept at deer farming operations. Hunters can also transport CWD unwittingly in deer and elk carcasses from infected states. Pennsylvania bans the import of high-risk body parts, such as the brain and spinal cord, from infected states, and the Department of Agriculture has begun a monitoring program of captive herds.

Cottrell said that every one of the Commission's six regional offices reported violations of the body parts ban in 2006.

"High risk parts were reported from Illinois, Nebraska, Wisconsin, Wyoming and Colorado," he said. "Some were seized, but some were never recovered."

The Game Commission randomly tests about 4,000 hunter-killed Pennsylvania deer for CWD each year. No tests have proven positive for the disease. But unlike West Virginia, Pennsylvania does not check road-killed deer for CWD. West Virginia's first confirmed case was a buck killed on a highway near Slanesville.

"We've chosen to use road kill because it gives us a very good sampling," said West Virginia Department of Natural Resources assistant chief of game management, Paul Johansen. "It allows us to gather animals from a broad range."

Following the discovery of CWD in Wisconsin, wildlife officials requested the aid of hunters and landowners to stop the disease by eradicating the deer herd in two different areas near the state's southern border. Wisconsin DNR encouraged shooting during summer months, opened the deer season from September until March and paid hunters for killing deer in the affected areas. But Cottrell said that, despite its efforts, Wisconsin has been unable to adequately reduce deer numbers in the eradication zone.

Game Commission officials conducted a mock CWD response drill last week across Pennsylvania.

"With CWD being uncovered in two neighboring states, New York and West Virginia, we must continue to plan and act as if it is a matter of not if CWD is found, but rather when CWD is found in Pennsylvania," Game Commission executive director Carl Roe said.