Chronic Wasting Disease (CWD) has been present in the wild for decades in northeastern Colorado and southeastern Wyoming. CWD can effect white-tailed deer, mule deer, and elk. Since that time, CWD has spread through some of the state’s elk ranches in 2001 after an operation with some infected animals shipped elk around the state. Since there is no vaccine for cervids, thousands of captive elk were slaughtered in Colorado to prevent spread of the disease.
Consumers are being warned not to eat some retail elk meat sold at a recent farmers’ market in Longmont, Colorado. State and Boulder County health officers issued a recall Wednesday for elk meat sold on December 13 at a farmers’ market at the Boulder County Fairgrounds. The meat comes from an elk found to have chronic wasting disease from a ranch in northern Colorado. Though the disease is thought to be harmless to humans, health officials still warn against eating meat from infected animals. Continue reading CWD Found in Colorado Elk, Meat Recalled