First Deer Discovered in St. Francois County with Chronic Wasting Disease

(Farmington) The Missouri Department of Conservation reports that it sampled and tested more than 33-thousand deer for chronic wasting disease during the C.W.D. surveillance year between July 2022 and April 2023.

117 of those deer tested positive for C.W.D.

Chronic wasting disease is a 100-percent fatal disease in white-tailed deer.

The disease has been attributed to significant deer population declines in other states.

Some of those 117 disease infected deer came from the listening area. 20 were harvested from Ste. Genevieve County, 7 in Jefferson, 4 in Perry, 2 in Crawford and one deer with C.W.D. was discovered in St. Francois County.

That was the very first time chronic wasting disease was found in a St. Francois County deer.

A news release from the conservation department says experts expects C.W.D. to spread but the goal is to slow the spread while researchers work to develop a cure and additional management tools, and to keep the percentage of infected deer low.

This past year in Missouri, less than one percent of tissue samples from hunter-harvested deer tested positive for the disease.