COLUMBUS, Ohio — Chronic wasting disease, or CWD, is more prevalent in the western part of the country than anywhere in the United States. Last year, however, authorities became alarmed when a case showed up on an Ohio hunting preserve.

Earlier this month a second case of CWD was found on a breeding farm. Both properties are in Holmes County and owned by Daniel Yoder, who was arrested in February on two counts of tampering with evidence (a third-degree felony) related to an investigation into how CWD came to his property and spread.

Erica Hawkins, Ohio Department of Agriculture spokeswoman, said finding more of the disease in Yoder’s deer was expected. The state has ordered all deer on the hunting preserve and now the breeding farm to be euthanized or “depopulated.”

“We anticipated we would find more positives,” she said. “As depopulation occurs, we expect we will find more positives.”

CWD is among a family of diseases known as transmissible spongiform encephalopathies, which includes so-called “mad cow” disease. The diseases are caused by misfolded rogue proteins called prions. The disease is always fatal, but has not yet transferred to livestock or humans.

The state received the infected deer sample on March 19 and it tested positive March 27. The test was confirmed on March 31 by the National Veterinary Services Laboratories in Ames, Iowa. Ohio officials estimated there were 200-300 deer on the preserve and have records showing there are 216 deer on the breeding farm, but an accurate count likely won’t be done until the deer are euthanized.

The state placed a quarantine on the preserve on April 24, 2014, which prohibited deer from entering or leaving the premises. The breeding farm was placed under quarantine two months later. Despite that, officials said two deer from the farm were found outside the preserve when they were recently killed by hunters.

Additionally, the state said Yoder “chronically violated” recordkeeping requirements by not reporting when he added deer to his captive herds.

Multiple attempts to reach Yoder for comment on this article through his business phone, World Class Whitetails of Ohio, were unsuccessful; and according to Holmes County Prosecutor Steve Knowling, Yoder does not seem to have an attorney. Hawkins said the state Department of Natural Resources has been testing wild deer for the disease in the areas around the farms, but no positive cases have yet been found.

Hunting is no longer allowed at the preserve, she said. The state is still determining how it will eliminate the hundreds of deer at both facilities but hopes a solution would be found in the next few weeks. She added it remains unknown whether Yoder will be compensated for any of the deer the state plans to kill. The state does expect to eliminate deer at both facilities at the same time.

“Ohio’s captive whitetail deer licensing program was enacted two years ago for the purpose of continuously monitoring the health of the captive deer populations in the state to manage the spread of and exposure to diseases such as CWD,” said State Veterinarian Dr. Tony Forshey.

“We have worked closely with the Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture to identify and trace back positive cases. We will continue to take aggressive steps to ensure that CWD does not pose a threat to the state’s wild deer population.”

The state has quarantined 43 captive deer operations in Ohio since April 15, 2014, for receiving approximately 125 deer from operations in Pennsylvania that later tested positive for CWD. Twenty-two of those quarantines were lifted after negative CWD test results were confirmed in 53 of the suspect animals from Pennsylvania.

The disease is fatal in deer, elk and moose, but there is no evidence CWD can be transmitted to humans, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and The World Health Organization. Though no human disease has been associated with CWD, the CDC recommends, as a precaution, that people or other animals do not eat any part of an animal diagnosed with or showing signs of CWD.

According to the Chronic Waste Disease Alliance, states hit hardest with CWD are Utah, Colorado, Wyoming, Nebraska and South Dakota. CWD has also been spotted in Ohio, Illinois, Wisconsin, Missouri, West Virginia, Kansas and New York.