ROCK SPRINGS - Chronic Wasting Disease (CWD) has been detected in 98 mule deer across Wyoming since the Game and Fish Department expanded its CWD surveillance efforts this fall to include the whole state, officials involved in the effort say.

The agency is using a new testing procedure during this fall's hunting season that has proven very successful so far, Game and Fish Department Acting Director Gregg Arthur told Wyoming Game and Fish Commissioners during a meeting Thursday.

Arthur said that as of Nov. 3, the department has tested just over 4,300 deer statewide for CWD.

Of those sampled, 98 have tested positive and 50 samples were untestable, he said.

Arthur said the use of a new sample analyzing machine has greatly improved CWD testing efforts and speeded up the effort. The statewide testing will allow the agency to take faster management actions to combat new outbreaks of the disease when detected.

Scientists developed a new enzyme-linked analyzing machine that allows field personnel at check stations to take tissue samples from the animal's lymph nodes - located in the neck at the base of the throat - instead of the brain.

In the past, the only way to determine for certain if an animal was infected with CWD was to kill the animal and examine the brain. The state's previous testing program relied mostly on hunters dropping off the heads of deer during hunting season.

"The new equipment is really working well … we're able to process 180 samples per day," he told the commission.

Arthur said the "disappointing news" is that the testing has revealed nine new deer hunt areas where mule deer have tested positive for CWD, including areas within the Black Hills, the Shirley Mountains and in the Big Horn Basin near Worland.

The commission decided at a Sept. 9 meeting to expand the department's current CWD surveillance program in an effort to better understand the distribution of the disease. The department wants to take samples from approximately 6,000 hunter-killed deer and elk in the massive surveillance effort aimed at tracking the disease.

Arthur said the agency fully expects to hit, or go over, that 6,000 sample target within the next few weeks.

The department will prepare a summary report on the testing program for the commission to review at their February meeting, he said.

"We're working and concentrating now on seeing (where) the positives are … then we'll go back and analyze that information in more detail," Arthur said.

CWD has been endemic to a 12,000 square-mile area of southeastern Wyoming and northeastern Colorado for more than 30 years. Animals that develop CWD lose weight, drink great amounts of water and seem unable to recognize humans. There is no known cure and the disease has proven 100 percent fatal.

In other business, an outside consultant working on the License Issuance Project updated the commission on the selection criteria that was developed to evaluate the various options for overhauling the state's hunting and fishing licensing system.

The all-encompassing License Issuance Project is reviewing the department's existing system and is developing possible solutions on how best to handle the issuance of hunting and fishing licenses in the future to improve customer service.

The commission has been considering for some years possible ways to improve license sales, including moving to Internet License sales and/or converting to some sort of in-house, electronic license system.

The commission wants to replace the current manual paper system used by about 400 license selling agents (LSAs) across the state.

Project Manager Eric Isom told commissioners the consultant will be conducting a telephone survey later this month to obtain citizens and vendors opinions on license issuance project.

He said the phone survey will sample 100 sportsmen and 100 LSAs from across the state. The survey should take from three to four weeks to complete. Isom said the consultant is in the process of drafting the questions that will be used in the survey.

A final decision support document on the recommended license issuance option will be presented to the commission at their February meeting. Isom said the final document will also include a project plan to implement the option.

Wyoming has one of the most complex hunting license draw systems in the country, agency officials note, and overhauling the system won't be easy or inexpensive.