Deer That Escaped CWD Farm Quarantine Killed, Will Be Tested

By JEFF FRANTZ, The Patriot-News 

Pink 23, the deer that escaped an Adams County captive farm where Chronic Wasting Disease was discovered, was killed today.

Jason Jackson of Dover Twp. and his children, Heidi, 4, and Marshall, 8, and wife Dusty watch as Game Commission personnel at the chronic wasting disease sampling site in Latimore Twp., Adams County, remove samples from a deer that Marshall harvested. (DAN GLEITER, The Patriot-News)

On the first day of rifle deer season, hunters who harvested a deer within the disease management area in Adams and York counties take their deer to a state Game Commission chronic wasting disease sampling site at State Game Lands 249 at Lake Meade Road. (DAN GLEITER, The Patriot-News)

The deer will be tested by the Department of Agriculture and the results should be known in about a week, said Carl Roe, the Executive Director of the Pennsylvania Game Commission.

Pink 23 escaped the farm when agents from the Department of Agriculture attempted to kill the deer there after two deer tested positive for CWD, which is similar to Mad Cow Disease. Because CWD was found in the captive population, hunters in most of York County and the eastern portion of Adams County are required to have their deer checked for the disease.

Roe had not heard if Pink 23 was killed by a hunter or one of the professional sharpshooters that had been looking for it. He did not know where the deer was harvested.

Pink 23, the deer that escaped an Adams County captive farm where Chronic Wasting Disease was discovered, was killed today.

Right now, there is no indication Pink 23 -- named for the identifying tags played in its ears at the farm -- had CWD. It was healthy when it escaped the farm. The eight other deer tested all came back negative. There is no way to test a live deer for CWD.

"If it comes back negative, that would alleviate a lot of our concerns," Roe said. "If it comes back positive, we still don't know how many other deer might have been exposed to it, or how many prions it shed."

Prions are the proteins that carry the disease. Scientists believe CWD can survive in those prions for at least 16 years.

Even if Pink 23 comes back negative, the Game Commission will continue to test for CWD for at least the next four years in York and Adams counties.

Purple 4, which has been linked to same captive heard as Pink 23, escaped from a farm in Huntingdon County. So far, it has still not been captured.