Pennsylvania Invests $1 Million In 'Zombie Deer' Disease Research

PENNSYLVANIA — The state has announced major funding to help fight the phenomena of "zombie deer" disease in Pennsylvania.

A total of $1 million in grants will be funneled to help stop chronic wasting disease, which has gained a colorful nickname due some of its alarming effects.

The disease impacts deer, elk and moose. As of January 2019, it has been reported in Pennsylvania and 23 other U.S. states, as well as two provinces in Canada. The grants will fund three innovative research projects that aim to better understand the disease and detect it earlier on.

"Scientists have made significant progress toward better understanding Chronic Wasting Disease in isolating genes associated with the disease,” Agriculture Secretary Russell Redding said in a statement this week announcing the funding. "These projects show potential to build on that progress by speeding diagnosis, helping scientists better understand how CWD progresses and ultimately, learn how to keep it from spreading."

>>'Zombie Deer' Disease Now In PA: Here's Why You Should Care

In Pennsylvania, the disease has been reported in five counties: Blair, Bedford, Cambria, Clearfield, and Fulton.

The state is also offering genetic screening to help deer farmers determine how likely their deer are to contract the disease.

One of the projects will use a $242,246 grant to explore the potential of using working dogs to detect the disease in deer feces.

Another will divert $561,000 to conduct live-animal tests to detect the disease, led by researchers at the University of Pennsylvania School of Veterinary Medicine. Another $196,754 grant for similar purposes will be led by Davin M. Henderson, a protein chemist and founder of CWD Evolution.

The disease got its nickname — "zombie deer disease" — because of the horrifying effects on the animals that contract it. The sick animals sometimes take on the vacant stare associated with "zombies" and they become so gaunt their rib cages are visible.

Chronic wasting disease was first detected in captive deer and other members of the hoofed Cervidae family in the late 1960s in Colorado and wild deer in 1981, and gradually has spread to the Midwest, Southwest and, to a more limited degree, to the East Coast.

It's possible, however, that chronic wasting disease may be in other states that don't have strong animal surveillance systems, but haven't been detected yet, the CDC said.