JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. – The Missouri Department of Conservation (MDC) reports that it sampled and tested more than 32,000 deer for chronic wasting disease (CWD) between July 2021 and April 2022. Of the more than 32,000 deer sampled, 86 tested positive for CWD.
Those deer bring the total number of CWD cases found in the state to 292 since the first case in wild deer was found by MDC in early 2012. Including recent sampling efforts, MDC has collected more than 210,000 tissue samples for CWD testing since the disease was first detected.
Of deer tested this past season, MDC found CWD-positive deer in 18 counties: Adair (2), Barry (4), Cedar (2), Christian (2), Franklin (6), Howell (1), Jefferson (12), Linn (12), Macon (10), Oregon (6), Perry (2), Pulaski (1), Putnam (1), St. Clair (1), Ste. Genevieve (15), Stone (6), Taney (2), and Washington (1).
CWD-positive cases in Barry, Christian, Howell, and Washington counties marked the first detections of the disease in these counties.
More than 18,700 of the 32,000-plus deer tested were sampled as part of MDC mandatory CWD sampling efforts during the opening weekend of the November portion of the firearms deer season, Nov. 13 and 14. Mandatory sampling required hunters who harvested deer in any of the 34 MDC CWD Management Zone counties during that weekend to present their deer for CWD sampling.
Of the more than 32,000 deer sampled, about 3,000 were collected through MDC’s partnerships with many landowners in localized areas where CWD has been found. MDC works with local landowners on a voluntary basis to remove deer through targeted culling after the close of regular deer seasons in immediate areas where CWD has been recently found.
“These landowners are critical in slowing the spread of CWD by removing additional infected deer from the landscape
