1,000 Elk With Brain Disease to Be Slaughtered

About 1,000 elk in three private Colorado herds were found to be infected with a brain ailment called chronic wasting disease and will be destroyed and tested.

One herd is in south-central Colorado, raising concerns the disease could spread into the state’s renowned Western Slope elk and deer herds, according to the Colorado Division of Wildlife. The others are in the north, where the disease has been present for decades.

There are no documented cases of the chronic wasting disease infecting humans, but it is closely related to “mad cow” disease, which is linked to a human brain-wasting disease that has killed more than 100 Europeans.