Chronic Wasting Disease has been detected for the first time in a Star Valley mule deer, and two doe mule deer near Cody tested positive in April, the Associated Press reports

The disease is often fatal and attacks the central nervous system of white and mule deer, Rocky Mountain elk and sometimes moose.

The Jackson Hole area has gone years without a positive test in Star Valley, wildlife officials say. A dead doe deer found near Star Valley Ranch in February was recently discovered to be carrying the disease.

Medical researchers say there is no proof the disease can be transmitted to humans, but they do not recommend humans eat meat from animals that test positive for the disease.

Diseased deer in the Cody region were discovered on the South Fork of the Shoshone River last year, and other positive deer have turned up in the Meeteetse and Worland areas in the past, said Alan Osterland, Game and Fish wildlife supervisor in Cody.

The Star Valley incident is in an area that reaches as far north as Alpine and includes an elk feeding ground and large sections of Bridger-Teton National Forest property.

A year ago, a diseased buck whitetail deer was killed by a hunter in a hunting area that comes within 10 miles of Yellowstone National Park.

The disease has now gone statewide, Sierra Club Wyoming Chapter Conservation Director Lloyd Dorsey said. “Wyoming now has chronic wasting disease literally border to border, east-west and north-south, and it’s approaching Yellowstone National Park and feed grounds and Jackson Hole inexorably,” Dorsey said.