Fish and Game director reports low but spreading chronic wasting disease, declining wolf numbers and increasing grizzly conflicts

Jim Fredericks, director of the Idaho Department of Fish and Game, gave the committee an agency update covering chronic wasting disease (CWD), wolves and grizzly bears and described current surveillance, management tools and legal challenges.

On CWD, Fredericks explained that the disease is caused by a misfolded protein called a prion and is infectious, untreatable and fatal. He said there are no confirmed human cases and that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends people not eat meat from animals that tested positive. Fredericks described Idaho’s detection history: the first detections in Slate Creek in 2021 prompted mandatory testing and focused surveillance hunts; prevalence in that focal area has remained under 3 percent through 2024. In the Panhandle, the department detected CWD near Bonners Ferry in August 2024; subsequent surveillance and mandatory testing produced six positives out of roughly 1,400 samples (under 0.5 percent prevalence). Fredericks noted…