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Ohio’s Deer Herd Test Negative For Chronic Wasting Disease

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State officials say samples taken from Ohio's deer herd last year showed no evidence of chronic wasting disease for the 11th consecutive year.

Chronic wasting disease, or CWD, is a degenerative brain disease that affects elk, mule deer and white-tailed deer.

Officials with the Ohio Department of Natural Resources and the state Department of Agriculture said Monday that state and federal agriculture and wildlife officials collected 519 samples from the state's herd in 2012. All were negative for the disease.

Since CWD was discovered in the late 1960s in the western United States, there has been no evidence that it can be transmitted to humans. The disease has been found in wild and captive deer, moose or elk in 22 states and two Canadian provinces.