Russ Mason

From a wildlife perspective, management of chronic wasting disease (CWD) boils down to prevention, surveillance, and suppression. Eradication is unrealistic, just as it is for other wildlife diseases.
Most likely, CWD eventually will spread to most (if not all) cervid populations and drive changes to the size and age composition of herds. Said another way, the disease is going to do whatever it “wants” to do regardless of natural resource agency interventions. Luckily, minimizing human exposures to CWD is more manageable.

News reports and agency communications make clear that chronic wasting disease continues to spread to new places and also that prevalence is increasing among herds already affected by the disease.
Despite 50 years of research and attempted management interventions, there are no demonstrably effective methods to contain, much less to eradicate, CWD. At best, in states like Illinois, hunting and sharp-shooting seem to have slowed (but not stopped) increases in the prevalence of the disease.