There have been zero cases of chronic wasting disease detected in Butler County during the 2023-24 deer hunting season, the Pennsylvania Game Commission announced Wednesday, May 28.

The fatal neurological disease threatens white-tailed deer and elk and has been detected in other areas of the state.

Since July 1, 2023, the game commission collected nearly 11,000 samples from deer. Samples from deer harvested by hunters made up 7,000 of those samples.

The disease was detected in 291 of the hunter-harvested deer. To date, more than 440 deer have tested positive for chronic wasting disease in the 2023-24 sampling year, up from 426 positive samples in 2022-23, according to the release.

Most of the deer that tested positive during this hunting season were from south-central Pennsylvania in an area that includes Bedford, Blair, Franklin, Fulton, and Huntingdon counties, the commission said.

To learn more about the disease and check out the CWD Surveillance Dashboard, visit pgc.pa.gov/cwd.