Breeding distrust: The biopolitics of chronic wasting disease in white-tailed deer

Abstract

Chronic wasting disease (CWD) is now a major health concern among US cervid populations, including white-tailed deer ( Odocoileus virginianus). Texas is home to the greatest number of deer breeding facilities and most bred deer in the United States. The vast majority of the state's CWD cases occur at deer breeding facilities. CWD risk on deer breeding facilities is largely owed to the close proximity of deer pens. To reduce the risk of CWD transmission, state authorities use strict management strategies including culling of infected and potentially infected deer populations. State wildlife biologists provide recommendations that inform the CWD containment strategies. However, there is contention between deer breeders and state wildlife authorities over CWD. Property contradictions—whereby the state must manage the public trust deer herd on privately owned land—complicates the state's biopower and provides breeders the opportunity to reconfigure biopolitics. We draw on qualitative research data to demonstrate how CWD science becomes entangled among trophy antler genetics, physical abnormalities, ranching science, conspiracy narratives, hunting culture, and public trust property. We show how both the state and private entrepreneurs manipulate scientific knowledge toward the regulation of bodies: hunters, ranchers, and deer breeders on one hand, and the animals themselves, on the other.