Chronic Wasting Disease (CWD) risks are rising at domestic elk farms–and Idaho’s wildlife is paying the price
Deer, elk, and moose are central to Idaho’s identity—feeding our families, supporting rural economies, and connecting us to the landscapes we call home. But mismanagement at domestic elk operations is increasing the risk of Chronic Wasting Disease (CWD) spreading to Idaho’s wildlife and forcing costly responses that Idaho’s hunters and wildlife managers should not have to shoulder. CWD is a fatal, contagious neurological disease affecting elk, deer, and moose (cervids). No cure or vaccine exists. Big game herds infected with CWD can experience significant population declines.
Idaho has nearly 30 domestic elk facilities that sell meat commercially or offer “shooter bull” or canned hunts in private, fenced facilities. Operations like these are prohibited in Montana. The conservation concern is straightforward: when domestic elk, deer, and moose are kept behind fences that fail to keep native wildlife out and livestock in, disease risk increases—especially in a state working hard to minimize transmission of CWD.
A bull moose killed inside a quarantined elk farm
Last fall, Idaho Department of Fish and Game (IDFG) euthanized a wild bull moose found inside a domestic elk farm that was under quarantine due to CWD concerns. The moose had entered through a section of downed fence weeks earlier. Because CWD is fatal and persistent in the environment, and can spread through animal-to-animal contact and contaminated soils, IDFG determined the animal posed an unacceptable risk to surrounding wild deer, elk, and moose if it left the enclosure.
This incident is not isolated. It reflects the predictable consequences of weakened biosecurity standards for captive cervid operations—risks that wildlife managers, conservation organizations, and sporting groups had previously raised with lawmakers on many occasions.
Idaho’s CWD reality, and why domestic operations matter
Idaho first detected CWD in mule deer north of Riggins in 2021, after years of efforts to keep the disease out of the state. To date, 117 cases in wild animals (mostly deer) have been confirmed statewide, concentrated near the initial outbreak and in Game Management Unit 1 in the Panhandle. IDFG manages CWD surveillance and response for wild herds and collects tissue samples at mandatory hunter check stations located in CWD-affected areas.
Domestic elk, however, are regulated as livestock by the Idaho State Department of Agriculture (ISDA). When enclosures with infected domestic animals are not properly isolated from surrounding wild herds, the probability of CWD transmission increases, and the state’s response burdens grow. This is the uncomfortable intersection where two agencies with different mandates still need to figure out how to manage a risk to a public resource: Idaho’s native wildlife.
How policy changes increased risk
In late 2024 and early 2025, the first two confirmed CWD detections in domestic elk were reported near Idaho Falls. Only a year earlier, ISDA had approved imports of source animals from captive facilities in Alberta, Canada, near a known CWD hotspot. —introducing an avoidable and unnecessary risk to both domestic and wild cervids.
In the same period, the Idaho Legislature passed House Bill 591 (HB591), weakening safeguards for the domestic elk industry. The law removed double-fence requirements that reduce nose-to-nose contact between domestic elk and wild cervids. It also expanded flexibility for operators to move elk—including animals under quarantine—between premises and into large high-fence “shooter bull” enclosures, many of which border public lands.
ICL and many partners opposed HB591 in public testimony. The warnings were clear: reduced biosecurity measures would increase CWD risk to wild herds and push more obligations onto hunters and fish and game managers.
What public records show now
ICL has since learned, through public records requests to ISDA and IDFG, that at least eight additional CWD-positive cases have been confirmed at domestic elk operations in eastern Idaho in recent months. Additionally, domestic elk have tested positive for the first time in north Idaho. New quarantine orders were issued, but ISDA has not publicly disclosed those actions or any information on additional positive CWD tests.
These developments have consequences for hunters. This past fall, IDFG added parts of eastern Idaho to its list of mandatory CWD sampling locations —an important but burdensome step for deer hunters. This marked the first time such a requirement had been made in that half of the state. Further domestic detections may force additional check stations and expanded carcass management requirements for other hunt units.
Records also document repeated containment failures. In recent years, domestic elk have escaped or wild deer, elk, and moose have entered domestic facilities on nine occasions. Several recent incidents of biosecurity breaches and/or positive CWD tests illustrate the pattern:
Broadmouth Canyon Ranch (east of Blackfoot; CWD-Quarantined)
Incident: One of two elk farms with domestic elk that tested positive for CWD in 2024. Three more positive cases have been found at Broadmouth’s facilities in 2025 - one having been sourced from Selkirk Mountain Elk Ranch in Bonners Ferry (now, also under ISDA quarantine). As mentioned above, IDFG was forced to euthanize a bull moose found inside a CWD-quarantined 2,200-acre high-fence enclosure; later, a domestic bull elk escaped the same facility and was shot on public land nearly three miles away; state officials have also documented improper disposal of CWD-exposed domestic elk carcasses, in apparent violation of ISDA regulations.
Risk/why it matters: At facilities under CWD quarantine, breaches create an unacceptable pathway for exposure and spread, shifting response costs and risks onto the public.
Juniper Mountain Ranch (near Rexburg)
Incidents: IDFG has authorized a deer removal operation at the facility, killing nearly 60 mule deer found within a 5400 acre enclosure, thus far. The farm and high-fence hunt facilities are owned by former state senator and IDFG commissioner, Jeff Siddoway. A domestic bull elk traced to the operation was shot on BLM land roughly 16 miles away; weeks later, six wild mule deer were shot by staff and family members inside the enclosure.
Risk/why it matters: Records indicate owners knew for “a significant amount of time” that deer were inside the perimeter. Such biosecurity breaches risk CWD transmission to wild herds, but also represent the privatization of a public resource – especially if elk farm owners harvest wild animals that have gained access to a confinement facility for their own purposes.
Selkirk Mountain Elk Ranch (Bonners Ferry; CWD-Quarantined)
Incident:: Domestic elk producers that sourced a bull elk to Broadmouth Canyon Ranch’s high-fence “hunt park” in 2025, which later tested positive for CWD; Selkirk is now under quarantine orders issued by ISDA.
Risk/why it matters: This is the first documented case of CWD in a domestic elk farm in north Idaho. It is unknown whether Selkirk sold infected animals to other captive cervid operations.
Rocky Mountain Elk Ranch (near Idaho Falls, CWD-Quarantined)
Incidents: One of two elk farms that had a domestic elk test positive for CWD in 2024. Five more positive cases have been found at that facility in 2025.
Risk/why it matters: Increasing disease prevalence at domestic elk farms increases risk to wild cervids if biosecurity lapses happen.
Falls Elk (south of Tex Creek WMA)
Incident: A wild bull elk entered the high-fence facility and was killed by a trespassing hunter; officers documented fence failures “where the fence had holes or had fallen down to less than 4 feet tall.”
Risk/why it matters: Fence deficiencies are preventable, and when they occur, Idahoans and the wildlife they care about bear the consequences.
These incidents are not merely operational lapses—they undermine Idaho’s Public Trust responsibilities. Idaho law states that “wild cervidae may not be confined, kept or held on a domestic cervidae ranch.” When wild cervids enter domestic facilities, IDFG often has no responsible option but to kill them to reduce disease risk.
As IDFG spokesperson Roger Phillips told the Lewiston Morning Tribune, “We are not going to take chances when we know these problems exist. We are going to take action and be aggressive.”
Accountability gaps under HB591
ISDA State Veterinarian Dr. Scott Leibsle told the Lewiston Tribune that operators must be responsible managers with best practices “to reduce those risks.” Some appear concerned that additional or restored regulations would present a burden to operators and raise their management costs and cut into their profits (a canned elk hunt can cost $10,000 or more). But insufficient safeguards shift the risk to Idaho’s native wildlife and the public.
Public records indicate that even the weakened requirements are not consistently followed. For example, records show Broadmouth Canyon Ranch did not submit a required request to ISDA before moving CWD-quarantined trophy bulls into its high-fence facility—a requirement that HB591 now allows with discretionary approval. Transporting quarantined animals in open-air livestock trailers also risks spreading contaminated material along travel corridors through prime deer and elk habitat.
Records further raise concerns about basic tracking and oversight. Annual inventories are a key tool for disease management, yet documents indicate ISDA could not locate a database record for the escaped domestic bull elk killed near Broadmouth. Records also leave uncertainty about carcass disposal practices at quarantined facilities after mortality events or hunter harvests at high-fence enclosures.
Local leaders warned about this nearly 20 years ago
In 2007, Bingham County Commissioners upheld a Planning and Zoning requirement that Broadmouth Canyon build double fencing as a condition of its Special Use Permit, citing obligations to protect fish, wildlife, and recreation resources and warning that CWD spread “would be catastrophic.” ICL’s review indicates the double fence has not been built, and the operation may be out of compliance with its permit terms. We trust local officials will assess the record and take appropriate enforcement action if violations exist.
Time for a course correction
The evidence is mounting: domestic elk operations are posing an unacceptable risk to Idaho’s wild cervids and shifting the burden to hunters, wildlife managers, and the public. The Idaho legislature should revisit HB591 and strengthen biosecurity and enforcement.
ICL recommends:
Restore double-fencing requirements to prevent nose-to-nose contact,
Prohibit transfers of quarantined animals between premises managed by the same business.
Require verified wildlife-clearance protocols (including thermal drone surveillance where appropriate) before domestic elk are released into large high-fence enclosures.
Require restitution to IDFG when the agency must cull wild cervids due to disease risk created by domestic operations.
Require reimbursement for ISDA and IDFG staff time and equipment costs to mitigate CWD risks created by captive cervid rule violations.
Require quarantined facilities where hunting occurs to maintain and demonstrate compliance with an approved carcass management and disposal plan.
Update IDFG’s 2021 CWD Management Plan with additional opportunities for public involvement, and require timely public disclosure of new domestic detections.
Clarify Idaho statute and strengthen IDFG policy about public harvest of wild cervids that are residing in a domestic elk enclosure.
Sanction domestic cervid operators that are also licensed to guide and outfit hunters, if they’ve committed violations of ISDA captive cervid rules.
Idaho’s big game herds are a Public Trust resource—and part of what makes Idaho, Idaho. Domestic cervid operations have been banned in Montana. If operators want to have a place in the state, they should not be compromising the health of our wild herds or the hunting heritage and rural economies that depend on them. There is too much at stake.