Concerns are growing in the state about the possibility of Chronic Wasting Disease infecting white-tailed deer in Louisiana. This after CWD was found in one of the animals in Union County, Arkansas.
State Veterinarian Jim LaCour with the Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries says “the fact that it was found seven and a half miles north of the Louisiana line is very concerning to us.”
He says the agency has issued a ban on baiting and feeding in nearby Moorehouse and Union parishes beginning December 6. CWD is a neurodegenerative disease of white-tailed deer that can prove fatal to the deer and other animals in the Cervidae family but has not been shown to be contagious to humans.
LaCour says not feeding the deer is a precautionary step targeted at halting the spread of Chronic Wasting Disease.
“Feeding congregates the deer and we want to do everything we can to prevent nose-to-nose contact or spreading the disease possibly through saliva,” said LaCour.
LaCour is urging hunters to submit the white-tailed deer they’ve harvested so they can be tested for CWD.
“We want to get a bunch of hunter-harvested samples if we can to try to figure out number one if the disease is in Louisiana at this point and number two what the prevalence of that disease is if it is present.”
Testing for CWD has been going on in Louisiana since 2002 and of 12,000 samples tested, the disease has not been detected in Louisiana.
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