The Utah Division of Wildlife Resources (UDWR) will host the 3rd International Chronic Wasting Disease (CWD) Symposium in the summer of 2009, reports the Wildlife Management Institute. It will be held July 22-24, 2009, at the Marriott Hotel and Conference Center in Park City, Utah. Utah is the westernmost state to discover CWD in its free-ranging mule deer population.

According to event coordinators Leslie McFarlane, Wildlife Disease Program Coordinator for UDWR, and Mary Conner, Research Assistant Professor at Utah State University, the 2009 Symposium will address the latest CWD research and management findings and will provide a forum for wildlife agencies to present updates on the status, surveillance and management of CWD in North America.

Although the symposium program schedule has not been finalized, an invitation for special session topics and panel or paper presentations will be sent out to CWD experts, managers and researchers within the next two weeks. For more information or to submit session topics, contact Dr. Conner.