The Missouri Department of Conservation has released numbers from its 2018-2019 disease-surveillance efforts. Forty-one new positive test results for chronic wasting disease (CWD) were confirmed during the sampling and testing of more than 32,000 free-ranging Missouri deer. That brings the total number of CWD detections in Missouri to 116 since 2012.
Some of the most recent positive cases of CWD were in Southwest Missouri. Three were in Polk County, one in Stone and one in Taney County.
More than 20,000 tissue samples came from MDC’s mandatory CWD sampling during opening weekend of the fall firearms deer season. Some came from hunter-harvested deer through MDC’s statewide voluntary CWD sampling during the past deer season, and MDC collected tissue samples from a small number of road-killed deer and deer that looked ill.
MDC also worked with landowners around the state to manage CWD by removing additional deer from areas where CWD has been found.
CWD is a deadly illness in white-tailed deer and other members of the deer family.
