Global warming, Covid, CWD, etc. etc. etc. The sky is falling. Did it exist before testing for it? I surmise most likely yes. Lots of jobs were created and maintained with this and many other politically motivated issues.

It makes no sense to me how these many years later, and the hundreds of millions of tax dollars spent, the powers that be knows no more about it today than when it first came on the radar.

Probably improve the IQ of some.

IMO-

CWD is more of a political disease than biological. Like Covid, it has been weaponized to accomplish hidden agendas of many game departments regarding cervid management & movement.
In past few years, there has been millions of taxpayer dollars allocated to states for CWD "research" and control. Follow the $$.

Like BSE & scrapie variants, this prion disease has probably been around forever. Recently elevated incidence of CWD is direct result of increased testing; via popular captive deer facilities and high-fenced management enclosures. This has led to both voluntary and mandatory testing of wild deer to broaden the sampling range. More testing= more detection.

Unlike elk & mule deer, vast majority of whitetails don't live long enough to become clinically symptomatic. In 40 years of surveying hundreds of thousands of whitetails (captive & wild) from Great Lakes to Old Mexico, I have never seen a whitetail that showed clinical symptoms. This includes deer that have tested positive (detected) for prions. I'm sure they are out there, but my point being if CWD was such a widespread threat to whitetail populations, why haven't I seen even one during hundreds of aerial & ground surveys?

As a wildlife biologist, I interact with a large group of opinionated professionals on this subject and one thing is certain; there are many more unknowns about CWD than knowns. Euthanizing thousands of deer to control a disease that is spontaneously occurring or transmitted by insects, birds, soil, feed, etc., is not effective.

Exactly it’s easy to spend money that isn’t yours. Government solves nothing if it was that bad a private entity would solve the problem if there is money to be made

Sorta like Russian Roulette.....all it takes is one person to contract it and die....

Read somewhere last week that wild felines (cougars and bobcats) have something in their digestive tract that is "destroying/suppressing" the prions in consumed venison. The cats don't seem to be re-distributing the prions.

I recently read that a road killed deer in North Florida has tested positive for CWD. That's not good!