The disease used to be restricted to a small area of the USA where it was considered endemic: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/a8/Chronic_Wasting_Disease_in_North_America.jpg

But as can be seen on the map, it's spread to many non-contiguous areas throughout the United States. A different strain of the disease has recently appeared in Norway and has spread to Finland. People have no idea how it got there.

Here's the wikipedia article that describes the situation. Unfortunately, it has little information as to why this is becoming so widespread all of a sudden.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chronic_wasting_disease

Recent article talking about the epidemic:

https://www.vox.com/2019/2/21/18233227/zombie-deer-disease-map

How could this be spreading? Is it a too large deer population? But that doesn't explain how it's jumping to other areas? Could somebody be spreading contaminated soil, feces, or brains?