FC hunters' help requested with CWD sampling

Franklin County hunters are being urged to have their harvested deer tested for chronic wasting disease – a process that involves dropping off samples at the U.S. Forest Service office at 3085 U.S. Highway 98 in Bude.

Hunters should keep deer heads refrigerated or frozen before dropping them off and should leave at least six inches of neck attached to the heads for testing purposes.

Antlers can be removed by participating hunters before depositing heads in the on-site sampling freezers, which can be accessed at any time any day of the week.

CWD is a 100 percent fatal neurogenerative disease that is easily transmissible among deer through saliva, feces, urine or a contaminated environment.

The amount of positive material needed to infect deer is the size of a very fine grain of sand.

Conditions are ripe for the spread of CWD when an infected deer congregates with other deer in a small area, such as around a salt lick or feeder.

Bronson Strickland, a wildlife specialist with the Mississippi State University Extension Service, said CWD’s almost permanent effects make it dangerously different than other diseases.

“Hemorrhagic disease is viral and common among the deer population, but while it can be catastrophic in certain locations and years, that disease cycle has an endpoint,” Strickland said. “This does not happen with CWD.”

CWD lingers, both in terms of how slowly the disease kills individual deer and how slowly the disease spreads through a population.

“More importantly, there is no annual end point, such as the arrival of cold weather,” Strickland added.

“Once the disease becomes entrenched in a population, it is very difficult, if not impossible, to do anything about it.”

The federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends deer infected with this disease not be consumed.

One challenge of detecting the disease is that until deer enter the last stages of CWD, they often appear completely healthy.

Hunter participation in efforts to control CWD includes submitting harvested deer for testing, harvesting younger bucks, and discontinuing the use of supplemental feeding and baiting to help keep deer from congregating.

The Mississippi Department of Wildlife, Fisheries and Parks, which regulates wildlife and hunting in Mississippi, began looking for CWD among the state’s deer in 2002.

The first positive case in the state was detected in 2018 in Issaquena County and has grown to include more than 134 infected deer in Pontotoc, Marshall, Benton, Panola, Tallahatchie, Tippah, Alcorn and Warren counties.

Infection rates in other states have shown the disease does not go away and spreads widely if left unmanaged.

There is no known cure for CWD.

“If ignored, the disease will reach the point of no return in localized areas,” Strickland said. “Our goal is to keep CWD at a low prevalence in Mississippi.”

CWD was first identified in Colorado in 1967, and has spread throughout the western United States.

The illness was first seen east of the Mississippi River in Wisconsin in 2002.

William McKinley, who serves as MDWFP’s deer program coordinator, said it is vital for hunters to leave the heads of harvested deer at one of the state’s 63 testing drop-off sites.

Agency officials collect the heads weekly, test them for CWD and provide the results at no cost to the hunters.

“Store the meat in coolers or freeze it before processing until CWD test results are back, a process that usually takes about two weeks, but may take longer, depending on weekly sample volumes,” McKinley said.

“For peace of mind, do not eat the harvested meat until test results show CWD was not detected.”

The CDC has not reported any cases of CWD infection in people, but some animal studies raise concerns that there might be a risk to humans.

Additionally, testing each deer harvested creates data on the spread of the disease in the state, according to McKinley.

Some counties in Mississippi have had very few deer tested because few hunters participate in the evaluation program, so CWD could be present in the deer population without anyone’s knowledge.

When handling deer — such as when field dressing a harvested animal — officials advise hunters to wear latex gloves and minimize contact with the animal’s nervous system, specifically the brain and spinal column.

Another management step is a change in harvesting deer.

McKinley said hunters have harvested older bucks for years, letting young bucks mature and grow larger antlers.

“With CWD present in the state, we now need to increase the harvest of younger bucks, because this disease requires prevention,” McKinley went on to say.

“If we wait until CWD numbers rise before we make this change, it will be too late. If we do nothing, this disease will manage the deer herd.”

Find more information about CWD and its management and testing, visit http://mdwfp.com/wildlife-hunting/chronic-wasting-disease.