‘Don’t call it zombie deer disease’: scientists warn of ‘global crisis’ as infections spread across the US

A bull elk with late-stage chronic wasting disease, which is always fatal and has no cure, in Wind Cave national park, South Dakota, US. Photograph: NPS

In a scattershot pattern that now extends from coast to coast, continental US states have been announcing new hotspots of chronic wasting disease (CWD).

The contagious and always-fatal neurodegenerative disorder infects the cervid family that includes deer, elk, moose and, in higher latitudes, reindeer. There is no vaccine or treatment.