Chronic wasting disease (CWD) is a fatal neurodegenerative disease affecting 
free-ranging and captive cervids that now occurs in 24 U.S. states and two 
Canadian provinces. Despite the potential threat of CWD to deer populations, 
little is known about the rates of infection and mortality caused by this 
disease. We used epidemiological models to estimate the force of infection and 
disease-associated mortality for white-tailed deer in the Wisconsin and Illinois 
CWD outbreaks. Models were based on age-prevalence data corrected for bias in 
aging deer using the tooth wear and replacement method. Both male and female 
deer in the Illinois outbreak had higher corrected age-specific prevalence with 
slightly higher female infection than deer in the Wisconsin outbreak. Corrected 
ages produced more complex models with different infection and mortality 
parameters than those based on apparent prevalence. We found that adult male 
deer have a more than threefold higher risk of CWD infection than female deer. 
Males also had higher disease mortality than female deer. As a result, CWD 
prevalence was twofold higher in adult males than females. We also evaluated the 
potential impacts of alternative contact structures on transmission dynamics in 
Wisconsin deer. Results suggested that transmission of CWD among male deer 
during the nonbreeding season may be a potential mechanism for producing higher 
rates of infection and prevalence characteristically found in males. However, 
alternatives based on high environmental transmission and transmission from 
females to males during the breeding season may also play a role.