CWD was first identified as a fatal wasting syndrome in captive mule deer in Colorado in the late 1960s and in the wild in 1981. It was recognized as a spongiform encephalopathy in 1978. It is similar to Mad cow" disease (bovine spongiform encephalopathy or BSE) or the human variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease. it is almost always fatal and until recently only showed up in the old hot areas of theRocky's and Canada. In the past 5 years it has moved to a few other states such as NY and Wisconsin where they tried to stop it by systematically killing all the deer within a 287 square mile radius. It didn’t stop the spread and when it shows up it is a game changer for both the F&W departments and the hunters. Once it shows it will always be there. I often hunt NY and since CWD showed it is illegal to bring a whole animal back to Vermont. If I get a deer there I have to butcher it there and can only bring deboned meat, cleaned skull cap and antlers back to Vermont. Since theinfection can be passed between animals, Vermontmade it illegal to bait deer to minimize the chances of anoutbreak from spreading. Making captive deer or elk ranches illegal will probably happen here as well.