The Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries (LDWF) will conduct informational public hearings Friday (May 27) in Winnsboro and Saturday (May 28) in St. Joseph on a notice of intent (NOI) that bans supplemental feeding and cervid carcass export from the Chronic Wasting Disease (CWD) control area, which includes Franklin, Madison and Tensas parishes
The action is part of LDWF’s CWD Management Plan.
The Friday hearing will be held at the LSU Ag Center Macon Ridge Research Station in Winnsboro at 6 p.m. The Saturday hearing is set for the LSU Ag Center Northeast Louisiana Research Center in St. Joseph at 10 a.m.
The Louisiana Wildlife and Fisheries Commission (LWFC) approved the NOI during its April meeting.
LDWF instituted its CWD Management Plan in those three parishes in response to a CWD positive detection on Jan. 28 of an adult buck harvested in Tensas Parish. CWD is a disease that is always fatal to deer. It was the first deer recorded with CWD in the state, making Louisiana the 28th state to discover the disease, now occurring in 29 states.
The NOI, in part, reads:
•Baiting, placement of bait, or hunting over bait is prohibited within a LDWF designated CWD Control Area.
•The export of any cervid carcass or part of a cervid carcass originating within an LDWF designated CWD Control Area is prohibited, except for: meat that is cut and wrapped; meat that has been boned out; quarters or other portions of meat with no part of the spinal column or head attached, antlers, clean skull plates with antlers, cleaned skulls without tissue attached, capes, tanned hides, finished taxidermy mounts and cleaned cervid teeth.
•Approved parts transported out of the CWD Control Area must be legally possessed. Approved parts must contain a possession tag with the hunter’s name,
