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Chronic wasting disease confirmed in Kentucky for first time

​Officials with the Kentucky Department of Fish and Wildlife Resources announced today that Kentucky has joined the list of states across the country with a confirmed detection of Chronic Wasting Disease (CWD), a fatal neurologic disease that affects deer, elk and other species in the deer family.​​​

Two independent types of tests were performed on tissue collected from a 2 ½-year-old male white-tailed deer that was harvested by a hunter in Ballard County in November. Both tests yielded the same test result: the deer was infected with the abnormal proteins that cause CWD.​​​

It is Kentucky’s first documented case of the disease.​​​

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