Game Commission ramps up efforts to prevent spread of CWD

(Harrisburg) -- Efforts are being ramped up in central Pennsylvania to prevent the spread of a rare, deadly disease to the midstate's wild deer population.

Chronic Wasting Disease is blamed for the death of a captive deer on farm in New Oxford, Adams County, in September.

The state Game Commission is requiring all deer harvested inside a so-called "Disease Management Area" in York and Adams counties to be checked for the illness.

Spokesman Jerry Feaser says certain meat processors inside the 600 square-mile zone have been cleared to gather samples for the disease.

He says it's an effort to make things easier on the one state-run facility that's looking for the disease.

"We established a Check Station on state game land within the Disease Management Area," Feaser says. "However, we don't want to have an enormous number of people on that one two-lane, rural road."

Feaser says hunters are required to leave parts of harvested deer with game wardens or meat processors.

He says parts like the brain, eyes, backbone and spleen are at a higher risk for containing the disease.

No cases of CWD have been found in wild deer in Pennsylvania.

The Game Commission is planning public meetings to address concerns.