News Talk 94.1/AM 1600 Where The Upper Cumberland Talks
Chronic Wasting Disease (CWD) may threaten deer in the Upper Cumberland.
Tennessee Wildlife and Resource Agency Chief of Outreach and Communications Jennifer Wisniewski said hunters in the Upper Cumberland should not be alarmed despite the threat.
“You can finish out your season. If you do think you see a deer that has symptoms of [being] very skinny or looks emaciated and drools a lot, then give us a call,” Wisniewski said. “As fast as this disease can spread there is a chance that it is in other places that we haven’t identified.”
TWRA officials have confirmed 10 cases of chronic wasting disease in West, Tennessee. (Photo: TWRA)
The Tennessee Fish and Wildlife Commission (TFWC) established a CWD management zone in Fayette, Hardeman, and McNairy counties.
“And that is all in an effort to get additional samples. So for example, you’ll be required to take your deer on the weekend to a check station,” Wisniewski said. “And we will take a sample from your deer so that we can better understand exactly where this disease is in those three counties.”
The management zone has an extended hunting season for January 7 through 31. Hunters can bag one antlered deer and an unlimited number of does.
The zone will also have weekend check stations in accordance with the Center for Disease Control standards.
“So within the zone is really the only test people need to do now. If people feel so compelled that they are in those border counties,” Wisniewski said. “And they want to drive over to one of the counties with check stations, they are more than welcome to do that and we will test their deer as well.”
Wisniewski said CWD spreads at an extremely fast rate and is 100 percent fatal to the deer population.
“It is highly contagious in deer and spreads. The first cases of it were in Colorado in 1967 and now it’s in 26 states and 3 Canadian provinces,” Wisniewski said. “So that is all through spreading by some of it deer crossing state lines and some of it has been from people transporting deer.”
Following the confirmation of CWD, Tennessee became the 26th state to have documented cases of the disease.
Wisniewski said it is impossible to know exactly where the CWD came from.
“You know it has been coming across the border from Mississippi in Marshall County. They found that CWD positive deer,” Wisniewski said. “And that is what kind of spurred us to do extra tests in those areas right along the Mississippi border. So we believe that it came across the border from Mississippi because again, deer don’t recognize state lines.”
The regulatory actions came after ten cases of CWD were confirmed in Southwest Tennessee.
