It started with a couple of coyote hunters finding an elk that was alive but couldn't get up. Our people went out and found other elk down. They've look at you, but they couldn't move. You could pat them on the head. |
Nobody has ever died from CWD. |
Two ate the lichen and died, one didn't eat it and was fine. That was the absolute smoking-gun proof that the lichen killed the elk. |
We find no evidence from the epidemiological perspective or any investigations that humans get this disease. There is some very good, very compelling research out there that says it's very highly unlikely that humans can get this disease. |
We went back out and collected bags and bags of the lichen, maybe 100 pounds or so. We had three captive elk in Jackson Hole and we brought them to our Laramie lab and began feeding them the lichen. |