We have confirmed CWD just across the border in VA, we now have cases confirmed in SW TN. And that’s just in states we share a border with. A good many of us head out of state to hunt a state that has either confirmed it or is adjacent to a state that has confirmed it. It is likely my Nebraska buck from last year or my Missouri one from this year had the prion based on where they were taken for example. Now add into the fact the prion does not need a host and can live in soil, on vegetation, etc and you have a multitude of ways for it to be ingested or carried from one place to another. We know it can only be incenerated at extremely high temps as well. So yes, there is a high likelihood that you or I or any number of people have eaten an ungulate with CWD prions. There’s my unscientific math on what I said. And my unscientific opinion is that this most likely spontaneous protein that can be passed between deer species has been around for much longer than when it was first “discovered” and the cause of it seeming to spread is based mostly on a higher rate of testing in places that did little to no testing before.
Thanks for clarifying your thought process.