There are some changes to the way the Missouri Department of Conservation is managing chronic wasting disease as the firearms portion of deer season starts in November. Mandatory sampling in certain counties will still take place on opening weekend November 14 and 15. But Jason Isabelle, deer and elk program leader for the Missouri Department of Conservation, said there will be some changes.
"In previous years, we have selected kind of the highest priority counties. We've gone through a ranking and selected the highest priority counties within our CWD management Zone to pick which ones would be candidates for mandatory sampling," he said. "This year, we have actually eliminated the CWD Management Zone, and we've shifted our mandatory sampling focus to a four-year rotation."
MDC divided the state into quarters, according to Isabelle. The four-year rotation starts this year and goes through 2029, and in each one of those four years, each county of the state will have one year of mandatory sampling. Some counties that have never had mandatory sampling will have it this year. Deer hunters must have their deer sampled this fall in a few southwest Missouri counties: Cedar, Dade, Greene, Lawrence and Polk.
MDC encourages anyone to have their deer sampled to test for CWD throughout the hunting season. Isabelle said the agency has been testing deer for the illness for more than two decades.
"There are, you know, well over a hundred places in the state where folks can go to have their deer sampled. Some, you know, it could be a cooperating taxidermist or cooperating meat processor, an MDC office or a self-service freezer head drop. There's lots of places," he said, "and we do our very best to distribute those as far and wide in the state as possible so that folks don't have to drive too far."
There are also places where hunters can have deer tested instead of leaving the head in a freezer. More information can be found at mdc.mo.gov/cwd.
Isabelle said the distribution of CWD in Missouri has increased since it was first found in a wild herd in the state in 2012. Around 55 counties have had at least one positive test. But he said the vast majority of Missouri’s deer herd remains unaffected at this point. He said they’ll continue to work with hunters and landowners to manage the disease.