Interesting post on ProMED from President of NA Deer Farmer's Association

There was an interesting post on ProMED today by Gary Nelson,
President of the North America Deer Farmer's Association. Apparently,
4 of the 5 CWD-positive deer on the two farms in upstate NY were
actually rehabilitated deer, brought into captivity as fawns (ProMED/AHEAD/EDR post 20050428.1187). Gary Nelson suggested that CWD was brought in from the wild, and the ProMED moderator agreed.

It seems unlikely to me that there would have been no transmission on the farm and the deer were all positive when they came in. I suspect more information is required to guess at which direction CWD moved in this case. For example, in Wisconsin there is a very low prevalence in fawns (~1 in 1000), so it is possible or even likely they came in CWD-free and became infected on the farm. We will likely never know for sure. In any case this really highlights the risks associated with wildlife rebabilitation and wildlife 'farming'.