Rick Karlin is reporting for the Times Union a top wildlife expert is warning New Yorkers to be on the lookout for cases of chronic wasting disease among deer. “Chronic wasting disease has increasingly plagued state wildlife and agricultural agencies with no sustainable solution in sight,” said Krysten Schuler, a Cornell University wildlife disease ecologist. Chronic wasting disease, or CWD, is a highly contagious disease that develops slowly in the lymph nodes, spinal tissue and brains of deer, moose, reindeer and elk. It does not affect other animals and there is no evidence it can spread to humans. CWD is fatal to deer, causing their brains to deteriorate, lose bodily functions and emaciation. A case in Pennsylvania was discovered last week in a white-tailed deer on a Warren County hunting preserve. Warren County is in northern Pennsylvania, just south of the New York border just below Jamestown. Schuler noted that New York was the only state to have eliminated CWD after the condition was detected in the wild in 2005. Officials in the state have since taken pre-emptive actions, including banning the importation of live captive deer and intact deer carcasses. Read the full story in the Times Union.