label: Chronic wasting disease

DENVER - Tests on deer and elk killed by hunters show chronic wasting disease hasn't moved into new parts of Colorado, but it is cropping up in new places within Wyoming, wildlife officials said Tuesday.

The fatal brain ailment is found in northeastern and northwestern Colorado, but hasn't turned up in the southern or central-west parts of the state, Division of Wildlife spokesman Todd Malmsbury said.

In Wyoming, recent tests revealed cases in new places: near the Colorado line and near Worland, in the north-central part of the state.

The ailment until now has been concentrated in southeast Wyoming. It was first found in the state in the early 1980s.

Most wildlife experts believe the disease is spreading in Wyoming and hope ongoing research can pinpoint how it is transmitted, said Michelle Zitek, spokeswoman for the Wyoming Game and Fish Department.

Cases were also found late last year in the Black Hills National Forest, something Zitek said biologists had expected. The forest straddles Wyoming and South Dakota, which first reported cases in 2001.

Chronic wasting disease attacks the brains and nervous systems of elk, deer and moose. Scientists say there is no evidence the disease can be transmitted to humans and livestock.

For decades, the malady was found only in northeastern Colorado and southeastern Wyoming. The first known cases west of the Continental Divide were found in 2002 on an elk ranch and in the wild near Craig in northwestern Colorado.

Hundreds of wild and captive deer and elk were killed to try to stem the disease's spread in Colorado.

Slightly more than 200 of the 15,424 deer and elk checked last year in Colorado tested positive for chronic wasting disease. The number of heads submitted was down from 24,652 in 2002 because hunters didn't kill as many animals.