I really want to thank Kathy and reader 2nd for answering my questions in detail. However, my real concern is that even though deer with adequate copper intake don't seem to contract CWD, that maybe they could still be carriers. Maybe same for cattle. I saw some research that showed that certain genetic combinations would prevent BSE symptoms from developing, even though animal had been infected. To me this means an infected animal could be a carrier and not develop symptoms. This seems to be the case with deer and CWD. I think there are a lot of positive results that don't show symptoms. So could this be the case for cattle? Could they be carriers without showing sysmtoms? If this is even a possability then our state is doing cattlemen a great diservice by essentially ignoring CWD and allowing it to spread. Was wondering if a large number of cattle in CWD areas have been tested to see if they could be carriers. It seems to me that if deer contract it from their surroundings, then cattle could too.