You would think it would be crossed into the cattle operations that graze right along with deer and there would be sick cattle all over the place.

There is a relative of CWD, it is called Mad Cow disease, they both are spread by prions and if I was a farmer I would be concerned about CWD because prions have a nasty habit of mutating and crossing species boundaries.

As OT pointed out same family but different disease. I believe the cow variant can pass onto humans but so far no evidence CWD can cross over. At this point it is just members of the deer family...deer, moose and elk.

Yes Mad Cow can be passed on to humans. It is not a good way to die.

I have the feeling CWD will follow the path of mad cow which has been identified for a long time now. Last I heard they were saying the scientists theorized that it would jump species onto the human animal. CWD bad news all around.

Sadly, that is a real possibility.