The Alabama Department of Conservation and Natural Resources (ADCNR) announced on Thursday that a third case of Chronic Wasting Disease (CWD) in a hunter-harvested, white-tailed deer has been confirmed in Lauderdale County in northwest Alabama.
All of Lauderdale and Colbert counties have been designated as a CWD Management Zone (CMZ).
Samples were collected from more than 3,500 white-tailed deer harvested statewide, with over 1,100 of those samples collected within the CMZ during the 2022-2023 hunting season. More than 98% of all samples collected within the CMZ have been tested by the Alabama Department of Agriculture and Industries, and the results have been received by ADCNR. At this point, this latest Lauderdale deer has been the only one positive detected this season.
A hunter voluntarily submitted that sample as part of ADCNR’s ongoing CWD monitoring efforts.
Chris Blankenship is the Commissioner of ADCNR.
“I would like to thank hunters for their overwhelming support by providing a robust number of samples submitted for CWD testing this season,” said Blankenship. “As they have been in the past few years, hunters will continue to be our most important partners in the management of this disease as we move forward with future deer seasons. We also thank the Alabama Department of Agriculture and Industries for their continued partnership with statewide CWD monitoring. Their assistance testing the samples allows us to better serve our constituents by providing them with timely information on the distribution and extent of CWD in Alabama.”
CWD is a member of the group of diseases called transmissible spongiform encephalopathies (TSEs). Among cervids, CWD is a progressive, fatal disease that commonly results in altered behavior due to microscopic changes made to the brain of affected animals. An animal may carry the disease for years without outward indication. In latter stages of the disease, signs may include listlessness, lowering of the head, weight loss, repetitive walking in set patterns, and a lack of responsiveness.
The disease is caused by a mutated protein called a prion. It is always fatal for white-tailed deer. The best-known prion disease is mad cow disease. Prions accumulate in the brain from being ingested in the environment. It is not a living disease organism, so the disease can’t be killed and will remain in the soil for decades. Unlike Mad Cow Disease, there is no known case of CWD infecting humans who consume infected animals; however, avoid consuming the brain or spinal cord tissue of any deer as a precaution.
Under Alabama’s Chronic Wasting Disease (CWD) Management Zone Regulation (220-2-.167), all deer harvested in the High-Risk Zone and the Buffer Zone of the state’s CWD Management Zone (CMZ) were required to be submitted for CWD testing during specific weekends of the 2022-2023 white-tailed deer season.
The first case of CWD in Alabama’s deer herd was detected in Lauderdale County in January 2022.
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