Deer with chronic wasting disease found near Missouri elk

ALTON, Mo. (AP) — A deer that tested positive for chronic wasting disease was found only 25 miles from Peck Ranch, which houses an elk herd that was reintroduced to Missouri at the cost of hundreds of thousands of dollars.

The Missouri Department of Conservation reported last week that the deer tested positive for the disease, which is contagious and always fatal to deer, elk and similar animals.

"At this point there's no reason to believe CWD has reached Peck Ranch, because we do test all the elk mortality cases we find," said Jasmine Batten, the department's wildlife disease coordinator. "But the case in Oregon County is close enough for that to be of concern."

The infected animal was the first dead wild deer not shot by hunters that tested positive for the wasting disease in Missouri, The Springfield NewsLeader reported .

The department will follow containment procedures in Oregon County, meaning many deer within 2 miles of where the infected deer was found will be killed, with landowners' consent.

Elk were reintroduced to Missouri in 2011 after their natural habitat was wiped out in the early 1900s. About 170 adult elk are living in the Peck Ranch Conservation Area in southeast Missouri on the Arkansas border.

Including the new case, 76 cases of chronic wasting disease have been found in free-ranging deer in Missouri since 2012.

The conservation department has been closely monitoring Missouri border counties to catch the disease if it crosses the border with Arkansas, which reported more than 300 cases earlier this year.