According to the Mississippi Department of Wildlife, Fisheries and Parks, the number of confirmed cases of chronic wasting disease in deer has risen to 21, with 28 more suspected CWD cases awaiting confirmation from a national laboratory in Iowa.
All 30 cases discovered through testing during the 2019-20 deer season came from the North Mississippi CWD Management Zone, with six found in Marshall County and 24 in Benton County. Both counties are on the Tennessee line, just across the border from that state’s hot CWD Zone, where more than 400 confirmed cases have been found in two years.
The MDWFP took steps in January to helps expand its testing opportunities in the North Mississippi CWD Zone. It created a special two-day deer season Feb. 8-9, with regulations mirroring the regular deer season except that each hunter was granted two more bucks and five does over and above the regular season limit.
It was mandatory that all deer taken during this two-day hunt be submitted on the day of harvest for CWD testing. The season drew mixed reactions from hunters, with some happy for the additional opportunity and others worried about the impact on the herd.
“One way or another, we’ll be up here anxiously awaiting the results,” said Pete Jones, a native of Marshall County who lives in Oxford. “I had to work but would have hunted otherwise. I know a lot of my friends were planning to hunt, and I know one who killed three the first morning: two does and a pretty decent buck.”
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