Jacob Dingel Pennsylvania has a new weapon for battling chronic wasting disease. The Game Commission in July adopted a new CWD Response Plan, which provides guidance in managing the alwaysfatal disease affecting deer and elk. To view the plan, visit the CWD page at www.pgc.pa.gov. CWD Response Plan set in motion Game Commission counting on hunters to help manage the disease. The Pennsylvania Game Commission has a new plan for battling what many consider the biggest wildlife-management challenge of the 21st century. And it's counting on hunters to help put it into action. The agency's Board of Game Commissioners in July unanimously adopted a Chronic Wasting Disease Response Plan focused on prevention, surveillance and OCTOBER 2020 management of CWD, an always-fatal neurological disease caused by misfolded proteins - called prions - that affect whitetailed deer, elk and other cervid species. CWD first was detected in Pennsylvania in a captive deer facility in 2012. It was found in free-ranging deer just a few months later. In the years since, it's expanded both geographically and in a growing percentage of the deer population 45http://www.pgc.pa.gov