The Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife is considering how to keep chronic wasting disease from spreading to healthy deer.

A deer found dead north of Spokane tested positive for chronic wasting disease, the first confirmed case in Washington of a fatal and incurable disease that also infects elk and moose.

The adult female white-tailed deer was recovered in the Fairwood area and tested at the Washington State University animal disease laboratory, the Department of Fish and Wildlife said Thursday.

The disease has not been known to spread to livestock, though it is related to scrapie in sheep and bovine spongiform encephalopathy, or mad cow disease, in cattle.

It’s related to Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease in humans. It’s unknown whether chronic wasting disease can spread to humans, but it’s at least a theoretical risk, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Fish and Wildlife officials are talking about what to do now that the disease has been found in Washing, a department spokeswoman said Friday. The department drew up a response plan in 2021 that called for culling deer in the area.

The CDC recommends people do not eat meat from infected animals.

Chronic wasting disease was first detected in the U.S. in the 1960s in Colorado. Before this week, it had been found in 34 states, according to the CDC.

The disease was confirmed for the first time in California last spring and in Idaho in 2021. The disease has not been found in Oregon.

Oregon is watching for the disease. Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife asks hunters to voluntarily submit game for testing and requires it of people who collect roadkill.

“We’re surrounded now,” ODFW spokeswoman Michelle Dennehy said Friday.

Mark Pidgeon, president of the Hunters Heritage Council in Washington, said he wasn’t surprised the disease was detected. “It was just inevitable,” he said. “This chronic wasting disease is not a minor problem.”

Washington Fish and Wildlife has been testing for the disease since 1995. The department said it increased testing after the disease was confirmed in a deer in 2021 near Libby, Mont., about 70 miles from the Washington border.

“We detected this case because of the surveillance program,” wildlife program director Eric Gardner said in a statement. “We will announce additional management actions soon.”

States have had a hard time containing chronic wasting disease. By the time it’s detected, the disease has likely been around for months or a year, according to Fish and Wildlife’s response plan.

After an animal is infected, two to four years can pass before it displays symptoms, according to Fish and Wildlife.

The disease has spread to 26 of Montana’s 56 counties, the CDC reports. The disease has been found in Inyo and Madera counties in California and in Adams and Idaho counties in Idaho.

The disease is much more common in deer than in elk, and relatively rare in moose. In places where the disease occurs, the CDC advises hunters to have their harvest tested.

If the animal tests positive for chronic wasting disease, don’t eat the meat, the CDC recommends.