KALISPELL — The first known case of Chronic Wasting Disease (CWD) in Flathead County was recently discovered in a domestic animal at a game farm.
The Montana Department of Livestock says the animal was not exhibiting any clinical signs of CWD but was found dead on the game farm premises. The infection was confirmed by the National Veterinary Services Laboratories through the identification of prion in the animal’s tissue samples.
Montana Department of Livestock Assistant State Veterinarian Dr. Tahnee Szymanski says the entire game farm herd is under quarantine while the department investigates. She says this is the second detection of CWD in domestic animals in Montana this year.
“We had a case of CWD in captive cervids in Eastern Montana earlier this year and we know that location was in proximity to CWD in the wild so maybe not too surprising, for this one you know it’s an outlier as far as where we have found CWD in Montana,” Szymanski said.
Prior to the positive test in Flathead County, Chronic Wasting Disease in Northwest Montana had only been found in wild animals in the Libby area.
