diff --git a/CHANGELOG.md b/CHANGELOG.md
index 98d4311..ddd271c 100644
--- a/CHANGELOG.md
+++ b/CHANGELOG.md
@@ -4,6 +4,9 @@ All notable changes to this project will be documented in this file.
 The format is based on [Keep a Changelog](https://keepachangelog.com/en/1.0.0/),
 and this project adheres to [Semantic Versioning](https://semver.org/spec/v2.0.0.html).
 
+## [v0.4.4]
+### Fixed
+- Removed libdeflate from conda build which caused issues with threading.
 
 ## [v0.4.3]
 ### Changed
diff --git a/conda/build.sh b/conda/build.sh
index 00234c9..45ce866 100644
--- a/conda/build.sh
+++ b/conda/build.sh
@@ -2,10 +2,11 @@
 
 NAME=fastcat
 
-export HTS_CONF_ARGS="--prefix=${PREFIX} --enable-libcurl --with-libdeflate --enable-plugins --enable-gcs --enable-s3"
+# don't enable libdeflate -- seems to cause hangs when used with threaded decompression
+export HTS_CONF_ARGS="--prefix=${PREFIX} --enable-libcurl --enable-plugins --enable-gcs --enable-s3"
 export EXTRA_CFLAGS="-I$PREFIX/include"
 export EXTRA_LDFLAGS="-L$PREFIX/lib"
-export EXTRA_LIBS="-ldl -ldeflate"
+export EXTRA_LIBS="-ldl"
 
 OS=$(uname)
 if [[ "$OS" == "Darwin" ]]; then
diff --git a/conda/meta.yaml b/conda/meta.yaml
index b68d8b7..09e2453 100644
--- a/conda/meta.yaml
+++ b/conda/meta.yaml
@@ -20,14 +20,12 @@ requirements:
         - bzip2
         - xz
         - zlib
-        - libdeflate >=1.7,<1.8.0a0
         - openssl  # [not osx]
     run:
         - libcurl
         - bzip2
         - xz
         - zlib
-        - libdeflate >=1.7,<1.8.0a0
         - openssl  # [not osx]
 
 test:
diff --git a/src/version.h b/src/version.h
index 92d96d3..dafcb7a 100644
--- a/src/version.h
+++ b/src/version.h
@@ -1,2 +1,2 @@
 
-const char *argp_program_version = "0.4.3";
+const char *argp_program_version = "0.4.4";