Mule deer in Organ Mountains test positive for wasting disease

[feclnogn]

Just a note, there are no game farms that I know of in this part of the state.

SANTA FE (AP) - SANTA FE (AP) - Two mule deer in the Organ Mountains near Las Cruces have tested positive for wasting disease according to the state Department of Game and Fish.

The deer were captured as part of an ongoing research project near White Sands Missile Range.

Chronic wasting disease is a fatal neurological disease that attacks the brains of infected deer and elk.

There have now been eleven cases of chronic wasting disease confirmed in New Mexico since 2002, the year a deer found in the foothills of the Organ Mountains tested positive for the disease.

The illness causes animals to become emaciated, display abnormal behavior, lose their bodily functions and die. There’s currently no evidence of it being transmitted to humans.