It’s happened: chronic wasting disease (CWD) has been confirmed within a Wyoming feedground. Last week, Wyoming Game and Fish Department (WGFD) reported the detection of the disease in a cow elk visiting the Scab Creek Feedground in Elk Hunt Area 98, according to WyoFile. 

The cow elk, which did test positive for CWD, was found dead at the end of December. 

Elk Hunt Area is located in the Pinedale region, which is bordered by three CWD-positive elk areas: 28. 92 and 127. This recent cow elk is the “third documented case of CWD in the hunt area and the first confirmed case of an elk testing positive on a feedground,” according to a WGFD news release.

Currently, the Scab Creek Feedground has about 800 animals, which is over the feedground’s population objective of 500 elk. It will be included in WGFD’s first Feedground Management Action Plan process this year where the agency will look at long-term and short-term ways to keep the deadly disease in check and, hopefully, limit its continued spread.

While this is the first confirmed case in a feedground, wildlife biologists have been monitoring CWD’s prevalence for some time. WGFD currently requires mandatory CWD testing in hunt areas 171, 157, 89, 88, 70 and 22 for deer, but offers voluntary testing as well for hunters who turn in the heads or lymph nodes from animals they’ve harvested.