The number of Chronic Wasting Disease detections in wild deer is up to 49. The Department of Wildlife and Fisheries says lab results came back positive for CWD on a buck harvested in the Richard K. Yancey Wildlife Management Area in Concordia Parish. Deer Program Manager Johnathan Bordelon says CWD has been detected in three parishes.
“The initial detections had occurred in Tensas Parish. Last year, we had a detection in Catahoula and then during the current season, unfortunately, our first detection in Concordia,” Bordelon said.
Due to the confirmed detection during the ongoing deer season, hunters are encouraged to submit additional hunter-harvest samples for testing. Bordelon says a CWD sample drop-off site is located along Highway 15 near the Richard K Yancey WMA.
“Hunters harvesting deer can take the head, and a few inches of neck, and drop them by those coolers. That provides 24-hour-a-day, 7-day access to diagnostic testing,” Bordelon explained.
CWD was first detected in Louisiana in 2022. In Mississippi, it was first detected in 2018; and Bordelon says cases of neurodegenerative disease of white-tailed deer in Louisiana have been confined to the Delta Parishes.
“Recent detection is near the Mississippi River. And today, most of the detections have been within very close proximity to the river. So there is following a north-south pattern,” Bordelon said.
CWD is 100% fatal in affected deer. CWD has not been shown to be contagious to humans, but it’s recommended not to eat deer meat from deer known to be infected with CWD.