DENVER (AP) - Officials acknowledge that killing deer and elk to contain the spread of chronic wasting disease hasn't worked, leading the Colorado Division of Wildlife to give up the oft criticized practice started in 2001 during the height of fears the disease would damage the state's hunting industry.

Officials have killed 2,300 animals on both sides of the Continental Divide with the goal of containing initial outbreaks or reducing populations in hot spots where prevalence of the disease was highest.

"If we have an opportunity to keep it from spreading, shouldn't we do so?" Mike Miller, the agency's leading expert on the disease and proponent of killing the animals said of the thinking at the time. "A big part of our motivation was to keep it off the Western Slope. It was (a) real nice idea that was probably 10, 15 or 20 years too late."

Miller said data shows the practice, known as "culling," hasn't had any significant effect on the disease in the wild. The animals killed by game officials were a small fraction of the 100,000 deer and elk killed by hunters in recent years.

Animal activists, elected officials and some scientists questioned whether killing what for the most part were healthy animals was a realistic way of containing the disease. Other states, including Nebraska, South Dakota and Wisconsin adopted Colorado's method, which had strong support from Gov. Bill Owens. In 2002, Owens said the "aggressive policy" was needed because the future of the state's hunting economy was at stake.

"We're not afraid to acknowledge that some of the things we had tried aren't working as well as we'd hoped," Miller said. "It's never fun. I would be much more comfortable to sit here telling you what does work."

The disease, a cousin to mad cow, is a fatal brain-deteriorating ailment that is similar to mad cow disease and its human variant, Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease.

Europe's beef industry suffered greatly in the 1990s when dozens died from the rare Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease after eating infected meat. Five deaths were reported in England last year after eating tainted meat, the Rome-based U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization said.

Scientists say there is no evidence chronic wasting disease can affect humans, but officials recommend avoiding consumption of meat from infected animals.