By Hunter Cloud
The Natchez Democrat

JACKSON — Mississippi Department of Wildlife, Fisheries and Parks Deer Program Coordinator William McKinley said the Wisconsin Veterinary Diagnostic Lab confirmed a Warren County buck had Chronic Wasting Disease.

This buck was 4.5 miles south of the first positive case of CWD in Mississippi and found in December 2021.
In January, a second suspect positive CWD case was detected in a deer in Warren County. McKinley said they are still waiting on its confirmation as a positive.

In total, Mississippi had 11 suspect positives confirmed this hunting season, which ended Monday. Ten of these are from the northern region of the state. McKinley said this season, all of the suspect positives the Wisconsin lab-tested were confirmed positive.

MDWFP’s diagnostic lab is up and running again, and they have 900 to 1,000 samples pending right now. Mississippi hunters have submitted 5,226 samples for CWD testing this season. Their goal is to have 10,000 at the end of the year.

“In the past, the last weekend of the season has had a respectable amount of samples,” McKinley said. “It was good hunting weather this weekend. We expect to have some more samples come in. We will have more come in from taxidermists in the next few weeks as well.”