Missouri reports 243 new cases of chronic wasting disease in deer

The Missouri Department of Conservation reports it confirmed 243 new cases of chronic wasting disease in Missouri deer in 35 counties among 276,000 deer harvested last season.

Pemiscot County, in the Bootheel is less than 20 miles from Kentucky, has reported CWD in the past.

In western Kentucky, CWD ​​​​was detected in a wild deer in Ballard County in November 2023. The state's only other case was found in a captive deer from a permitted facility in Breckinridge County this past October.​​

No southern Illinois counties have reported a CWD case, according to the Illinois Department of Natural Resources. The Missouri counties of Perry and St. Genevieve bordering Illinois have had past CWD detections.

The latest CWD-positive cases were found through sampling and testing of more than 36,000 deer during the past season. Although the number of CWD-positive counties increased, less than 1% of samples tested positive for CWD.

MDC confirmed 70 cases of CWD found through its targeted-removal efforts of 4,768 deer after the close of the deer season in localized areas where CWD is found.

Targeted removal is a proven method to slow the spread of CWD and Missouri is one of several states that uses it to manage the disease.

Those new cases bring the total number of CWD positives found in the state to 815 over 46 counties since the first positive CWD case was found in wild deer by MDC in early 2012.

Missouri has an estimated population of more than 1.5 million white-tailed deer in the state.

CWD is a 100% fatal disease in white-tailed deer and other members of the deer family.