I live and hunt near the epicenter of CWD in Colorado. Even after the attempted eradication of deer in this area, the deer herd here is still plentiful enough, that those I know and hunt with still fill tags on a regular basis.
In fact, I have a hunting buddy that’s been shooting and eating deer from this area for 15-20 years. During the culling years, when the then DOW was killing as many as possible, he’d kill and consume 2-3 deer per year.
The fawn recruitment and survival rate are sufficient enough to sustain a near 50% harvest rate in unit 191 for all rifle seasons combined (CPW 2022).
Per the CPW 2022-2023 CWD harvest/testing data; the infection rate in the units 9,19,191,7,8 (DAU 4) hovers around 5%. These are the units initially impacted by CWD. Thusly, they have been impacted the longest. What I don’t see in these units are large herds of deer. There are enough distributed water sources and feeding areas that the deer don’t congregate in large numbers which probably helps with limiting transmission. The population in this area is estimated at 15,000.
Go east of I25 to units 87,88,89,90,95 (DAU 5) with a population estimate of 2,500 and the deer herd is suffering an infection rate of around 30%. These animals in the AG and prairie lands tend to congregate around fewer water sources. As I understand it, this is considered a leading contributor to higher infection rates.
I’m familiar with a particular group of guys that took several deer on a ranch in DAU 5 and all deer (bucks and doe’s) tested positive for CWD. One appeared very sick at the time of harvest.
Many theories abound related to CWD infection/transmission rates and their causes. Anecdotally, it seems managing population rates relative to resource frequency and distribution may be the most significant tool in limiting infection rates.