The Alabama Department of Conservation and Wildlife Resources announced Friday that Chronic Wasting Disease has been detected in a sample collected from a harvested deer in Alabama, a first for that state.
CWD has not been detected in the state of Georgia, according to the Georgia Department of Natural Resources’ Wildlife Resources Division (WRD).
Chronic Wasting Disease is a fatal neurological disease of deer, elk, and moose caused by infectious proteins called prions. Currently, there are no treatments, and the disease always results in the death of the infected animal. There are no preventative vaccines to protect animals that have not been infected.
How You Can Help Prevent Spread
- Hunters are advised that live importation of all deer species from other states is prohibited and has been since 2005.
If you harvest a white-tailed deer, mule deer, elk, moose or caribou in a state having a documented case of CWD, you may bring back ONLY the following carcass parts:
- boned-out meat;
- processed cuts of meat;
- clean skull plates with antlers attached (not the entire skull);
- clean antlers;
- finished taxidermy mounts; and
- clean upper canine teeth (aka buglers, ivories, whistlers).
The detection of CWD in the harvested deer in Alabama increases the number of affected states to 27.
CWD positive states and locations are Alabama, Arkansas, Colorado, Illinois, Iowa, Kansas, Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, New Mexico, New York, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Virginia, West Virginia, Wisconsin, Wyoming as well as Canadian provinces Alberta, Quebec, and Saskatchewan.
For more information, visit the WRD website at https://georgiawildlife.com/cwd.
Ga DNR
