Chronic Wasting Disease Found In Mississippi’s Deer Population

STARKVILLE, Miss. (WCBI)- Hunting season is here and if you’ve got deer in your sights, you may want to be cautious.

Experts have identified cases of Chronic Wasting Disease in Mississippi deer populations, with the most recent one being in Pontotoc County earlier this month.

CWD affects several species of deer including elk, white-tail deer, and mule deer.

It’s a contagious disease found in deer that causes small lesions on the brain of infected animals.

The cause is already in the animal’s body, they’re called prions.

“The problem with this disease is that it’s a mis-folded prion that becomes infected and causes the organism to start producing these bad prions,” said Dr. Steve Demarais, MSU Wildlife Management Professor. “When an animal is sick, they shed these bad prions and then that’s how another deer gets it, from a sick deer, from saliva, or urine, possibly feces.”

Demarais said once an animal is infected, it usually takes a year or two before they show signs.

Some of the symptoms include excessive saliva and progressive weight loss among others.

“That’s why it’s called chronic, it takes a long time and one of the main symptoms is the animal stops eating and wastes away, and so it’s Chronic Wasting Disease,” said Demarais.

So far this year, the Mississippi Department of Wildlife, Fisheries, and Parks has found two cases of CWD.

Once an animal tests positive for the disease, Demarais said state agencies will implement a feeding ban to prevent it from spreading.

“Deer salivate and they go to a feeder and they salivate onto the feed, and then another deer comes in and eats the feed that has their saliva on it,” the deer specialist explained. “Well that saliva had miss-folded prions in it which are infectious and can spread disease to another deer.”

State wildlife experts have been studying this disease for more than a decade.

They typically collect samples from hunter and roadkill deer as well as animals that look sick.

As of now, there’s been no reported cases of humans catching the disease.

However, Demarais recommends not eating the deer meat until after all test results have been returned.”

“Because testing is done here in Mississippi, it’s turned around within seven to ten days, so hunters just have to wait and hold off and they can check online to see if their animal is in fact negative.”

There is no cure for Chronic Wasting Disease.

The disease is already present among deer in 24 states.