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PA Game Commission adding fourth CWD management zone in northern Lancaster County

WEST COCALICO TOWNSHIP, P.A. — After two deer were found with Chronic Wasting Disease, or CWD, in northern Lancaster County, The Pennsylvania Game Commiss...

WEST COCALICO TOWNSHIP, P.A. --- After two deer were found with Chronic Wasting Disease, or CWD, in northern Lancaster County, The Pennsylvania Game Commission will add their fourth disease management zone.

The new disease management zone will be within a 10-mile radius of the deer farm Greenville Whitetails located near Denver.

It will be fourth CWD management zones since the disease was first found on an Adams County deer farm in 2012.

travis lau/pa game commission: "That includes the boroughs of Adamstown, Denver, Ephrata, Mohnton, Richland, Womelsdorf and Wyomissing and it includes a number of state gamelands," said Travis Lau with the Game Commission.

However, one of the four recently dissolved due to the zone being clear of any CWD infection.

Brian Burhans, executive director of the Pennsylvania Game Commission, said it's still too early for hunters in that area to be alarmed.

"Right now, we don't have any evidence that there is disease in the wild there. So we're taking these precautions to do the surveillance to make sure that if it is out there, we can detect it," said Burhans.

John Klein, director of government affairs with the Pennsylvania Federation of Sportsmen, said the the continued spread of CWD should be alarming the future of the billion dollar deer hunting industry.

He called on officials to put more resources into fighting the spread of CWD.

"This is a very, very big deal for us and not just for people that hunt but for all Pennsylvanians," said Klein.

Wayne Laroche, special assistant for CWD response, said CWD spreads from animal-to-animal (only deer) through bodily fluids and is always fatal to deer.

Symptoms in deer include drooling, shaking, droopy ears and bad coordination.

Although humans have not contracted CWD, officials request no one eat a deer that appears sick.

Laroche said while there is no solution or cure, their only option is to kill infected deer.

"We need to remove them from the landscape so that they don't continue to spread the infection," said Laroche.

The owner of Greenville Whitetails over the phone said to FOX 43 he believes some positive can come from the negatives in finding CWD infected deer.

He said as more cases keep popping up, he hope it will allow for more research to try and find a cure or solution.

For more information, visit the Pennsylvania Game Commission website here.

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