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.
