chronic wasting disease

noun

veterinary medicine

: a progressive, fatal prion disease of deer, elk, and moose that is characterized by weight loss, tremors, lack of coordination, drooling, excessive thirst, and listlessness

Since it was first identified two decades ago in deer in Colorado, chronic wasting disease has spread to a dozen states (including New York) and two Canadian provinces.

—Sandra Blakeslee

Scientists have identified a handful of diseases caused by misfolded proteins called prions, including mad cow disease, scrapie in sheep, and chronic wasting disease in deer and elk.

—Nathan Seppa

—abbreviation CWD

Examples of chronic wasting disease in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

Symptoms of chronic wasting disease in deer Deer with chronic wasting disease are symptomatic for first year or two before exhibiting lethargy, weight loss, drooling, poor coordination, and desensitization to nearby threats like people, predators, and cars. —Katie Hill, Outdoor Life, 29 Feb. 2024

But for inspiration, Napper needs to look only at the very real contagion in his own lab: chronic wasting disease (CWD), a highly lethal, highly contagious neurodegenerative disease that is devastating North America’s deer, elk, and other cervids. —Katherine J. Wu, The Atlantic, 1 Feb. 2024

What type of pathogen causes chronic wasting disease? —Erin Prater, Fortune Well, 26 Jan. 2024

The department uses the money for a host of fish and wildlife management programs, including stocking game fish, restoring habitats, wardens, monitoring chronic wasting disease and paying farmers’ wolf depredation claims. —Todd Richmond, Twin Cities, 24 Jan. 2024

Jorge is leading a multiyear study at the University of Georgia on chronic wasting disease, an always-fatal neurological illness. —Erika Howsare, The Atlantic, 30 Dec. 2023

The discovery of Yellowstone National Park’s first case of chronic wasting disease (CWD) last month has raised concerns that the fatal brain disease may someday spread to humans, according to some scientists. —Michael Dorgan, Fox News, 23 Dec. 2023

Yellowstone estimates about 10 to 15 percent of mule deer near Cody, Wyoming, which migrate into the park during the summer, have chronic wasting disease. —Margaret Osborne, Smithsonian Magazine, 30 Nov. 2023

Improper deer carcass disposal poses a chronic wasting disease risk to free-roaming cervid populations. —Katie Hill, Outdoor Life, 21 Dec. 2023

Word History

First Known Use

1980, in the meaning defined above