By Hunter Cloud
For The Vicksburg Post

ROLLING FORK — A buck harvested in Issaquena County during Mississippi’s velvet hunting season has tested positive for Chronic Wasting Disease.

It is the first positive detected in the county since 2019, Mississippi Department of Wildlife, Fisheries and Parks Deer Program Coordinator William McKinley confirmed Tuesday.

Four deer have tested positive for CWD in Warren County since 2022. CWD is a 100 percent always fatal disease in deer and there is no cure or vaccine for it. The disease spreads through infectious prions shed by infected deer in sweat, saliva, blood and other bodily fluids.

The Center for Disease Control states there are no known effects of CWD on humans but advises caution. Chronic Wasting Disease is more of a natural resource concern since it has the potential to wipe out large numbers of deer in a given area.

In Mississippi the first detection of CWD was in Issaquena County in 2018. MDWFP did not find another positive in the Issaquena or Warren County area until 2022 when two positives were confirmed.

Louisiana has found 12 positive deer, all located in Tensas Parish, The Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries has placed mitigation measures in place to slow the spread through the ban of supplemental feeding and the moving of carcasses outside of the control zone. Portions of Tensas, Madison, Franklin and Concordia Parishes are in this CWD control zone.

It is possible for positive deer in Tensas Parish to swim across the Mississippi River into neighboring Claiborne and Warren County.

“We know CWD is around and we are all fighting it in Arkansas, Louisiana and Mississippi. It is certainly present and more widely spread than what has been detected,” Louisiana Deer Program Director Johnathan Bordelon said. “The earlier you mitigate risk you are able to keep prevalence rates low. The only way to find the disease is if you get lots of samples. It is the prerequisite for that. States where they find the disease early on it appears the prevalence increases slowly.”

Hunters can help fight against Chronic Wasting Disease by mitigating risk of congregating deer, submitting samples and thinning the deer herd. A lower deer density helps slow the spread.

Mississippi collected 239 samples during the 2023 buck and archery only velvet season with a few more samples expected to come in this week. Samples taken from the lymph nodes are tested for the disease at Mississippi State University’s Veterinary Research and Diagnostic Lab in Pearl.

Hunters in the Miss-Lou should submit samples for testing and follow the control area regulations to help fight against Chronic Wasting Disease.

Four drop-off sites are located in the Warren County area — at the Valley Park Community Center; Mahannah and Phil Bryant Wildlife Management Areas; and Communication Specialist at 760 U.S. Highway 61 North in Vicksburg.

On Tuesday, MDWFP received $207,541 for an environmental surveillance project to study Chronic Wasting Disease. The money is part of a larger $12 million package from the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service.