DENVER -- Hunters who shoot deer and elk in areas hit by chronic wasting disease, a brain-rotting malady akin to mad cow, must make sure the elk and deer they shoot are tested for the disease, scientists said on Tuesday.

With the hunting season only a month away, government agencies, wildlife biologists, veterinarians and hunters are worried over how well the fight to eradicate the fatal disease has progressed.

About 450 scientists and officials from around the United States and Canada on Tuesday began a two-day conference to discuss how to detect and eradicate the fatal disease that hits elk and deer, but deer to a greater extent.

"A high level of both testing and landowner and hunter compliance are required for a successful eradication to occur," chronic wasting disease expert John Cary, of the University of Wisconsin, told the conference.

While scientists have been studying the effects of chronic wasting on deer and elk the stakes jumped this year when the disease was detected in Wisconsin in February.

In March biologists learned the fatal disease had jumped the continental divide in Colorado after staying for years in the eastern part of the state. The disease has also shown up in Wyoming, Nebraska and South Dakota. The multi-billion dollar hunting industry was all of a sudden under the microscope.

Hunting with a bow and arrow begins in a number of states on Sept. 15 and the full-fledged season gets underway in October.

---- Scare in Wisconsin ---- In Wisconsin, the number one deer hunting state, wildlife officials hope about 650,000 white tail deer will be shot this coming season to help rein in the disease, Joe Brusca, air and water director for the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources, told Reuters.

The usual take is about 500,000 a year, but officials are racing against the clock to eradicate the disease in an area about 30 miles (48km) west of Madison.

Hunting is a $1.4 billion business in Wisconsin, affecting hotels, restaurants and numerous other small businesses in the hunting areas.

Farmers are being encouraged to let hunters come on their land and hunt the area to help eradicate the disease.

In Colorado, officials said testing will be ratcheted up so 1,000 heads a day can be tested, senior wildlife biologist for the Colorado Division of Wildlife told Reuters.

"We want to get samples from all over so we can find the hot spots," he said.

And science rather than politics must rule, Colorado Division of Wildlife Chairman Rick Enstrom said.

"The science is the science. We have to go with the biology," he said.

Some segments of the hunting industry have criticized elk and deer ranches where the animals are transported and confined by artificial barriers. They have said that record keeping about moving the animals is not as carefully done as it should be. In the wild only about 17 percent of elk hunters and 37 percent of deer hunters are successful.

So far there is no evidence chronic wasting disease can spread to cattle or humans. But the World Health Organization has advised against eating venison or any part of an animal showing signs of the disease.

The deaths of three Wisconsin hunters in the 1990s who liked wild game are being investigated. Two of the three died from Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, a rare disorder that has been tied in Europe to eating meat from cattle infected with mad cow disease.