Deer hunters are encouraged to attend a meeting in Florence hosted by the Wildlife and Freshwater Fisheries (WFF) Division of the Alabama Department of Conservation and Natural Resources (ADCNR). The public meeting will be in Florence, Alabama, on Thursday, September 22, to discuss Chronic Wasting Disease (CWD) detected in Lauderdale County earlier this year. Two cases were found in northern Alabama this year, just four years after the deer disease was first discovered in Mississippi.
CWD is a transmissible disease found to affect deer, elk, and other cervids. It is believed to be caused by an infectious prion and has an extended incubation period. Diagnosis requires examination of brain and lymphatic tissue. Infected deer become emaciated, behave erratically, and eventually die. CWD is caused by a denatured protein called a prion.
The best-known prion disease is “Mad cow disease” (bovine spongiform encephalopathy) which devastated the beef and dairy industry in Great Britain after it killed a number of people who had eaten the affected meat. Controlling the disease did enormous damage to the agricultural economy in Great Britain and resulted in government orders to destroy 4.5 million cattle.
Most diseases are infectious diseases where a pathogen invades the body, and the immune system fights the invading species. Prions are not well understood but build up in the brain and spinal system until it hits a critical mass, and the animal goes into an inevitable decline. Since a prion is not a living thing, it remains even after the deer has died. Deer are contaminated from exposure to the corpse of dead deer who were infected with CWD.
Many unethical hunters take the meat from a deer they have harvested and dump the head and other parts in the woods. If that deer were infected with CWD, the prions will remain. USDA research on CWD shows that it can remain in the soil for decades; thus, a property that has had CWD-infected deer on it likely will still have the CWD prions decades later, even if the area was completely depopulated with cervids.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reports no strong evidence that CWD can infect humans. Researchers have been able to infect squirrel monkeys and laboratory mice with CWD. As a precaution, no brain or spinal cord materials should be consumed by humans.
ADCNR has regulations against importing deer, elk, mule deer, moose, or other cervid meat from states infected with CWD unless it is completely deboned. The regulations are designed to prevent the spread of CWD to Alabama, but to be effective, everyone must participate.
The meeting will take place from 6:00 to 8:00 p.m. at the University of North Alabama’s Norton Auditorium, located at 1 Harrison Plaza. The public and media are both encouraged to attend.
WFF officials will provide an overview of ADCNR’s response to CWD, including a new hunting regulation and the CWD Management Zone covering Lauderdale and Colbert counties. The presentation will be followed by a question and answer session.
Due to CWD detection in Lauderdale County, ADCNR enacted a new regulation for Lauderdale and Colbert counties, as outlined in Alabama’s CWD Surveillance and Response Plan during the remainder of the 2021-2022 hunting season. All of Lauderdale and Colbert counties are designated as a CWD Management Zone (CMZ). The area west of U.S. Highway 43 in Lauderdale County to the Mississippi and Tennessee state lines and south to the Tennessee River is designated a High-Risk Zone (HRZ). The remainder of Lauderdale County and all of Colbert County are designated as the Buffer Zone.
Last winter, there were no seasonal or daily bag limit restrictions on antlered or unantlered deer within the CMZ. There was also no antler restrictions for deer harvested on privately-owned or open-permit public lands in Lauderdale or Colbert counties through the remainder of the 2021-2022 deer season. Carcasses or other deer parts could not be moved outside the HRZ or CMZ.
Small game hunting and waterfowl hunting were closed for the remainder of the 2021-2022 deer season for several of the Wildlife Management Areas (WMA) and Community Hunting Areas (CHA) within the zone.
ADCNR will reveal new CWD rules for the 2022-2023 hunting season.
ADCNR promotes wise stewardship, management, and enjoyment of Alabama’s natural resources through four divisions: Marine Resources, State Lands, State Parks, and Wildlife and Freshwater Fisheries.
Bow season begins in October. Check your specific zone for exact season dates.
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