All the data I read from most biologist believe with CWD that it is not that it will be a quick killer, killing off herds of deer at a single point in time. It is proposed to be a long over drawn out process and yes all biologist agree it is fatal. The biggest issue which resides with CWD's incubation periods of weeks to years is it's over lasting affects on a herds age structure. You will start to see the age structure will be truncated. I believe it could have been natural or a mutation from the Scrape that sheep deal with but you would think there would be more reports of emaciated deer throughout the nation then what has been noticed over the last few decades. I disagree with the killing off of deer as a precautionary step though as with most viruses and diseases it only takes one animal to be genetically indifferent to the prion to save the rest of the deer. That trait would then naturally be passed on to other deer and spread from there. The lottery killing of randomly found deer prevents this portion of nature from taking its course.