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MDC
needs help from hunters and landowners in northeast Missouri, lifts
antler-point restriction and increases antlerless harvest in key counties.
JEFFERSON
CITY, Mo. -- The Missouri Department
of Conservation (MDC) is asking deer hunters and landowners in northeast
Missouri to help limit the spread of Chronic Wasting Disease (CWD) -- a disease
fatal to deer -- through some Department recommendations and regulation changes.
The
Department’s focus on northeast Missouri is in response to several dozen deer
from Linn, Macon, and Adair counties testing positive for the deadly disease
over the past few years. The disease has also been found in a buck harvested in
Cole County last year.
MDC considers 15 counties around Adair,
Cole, Linn, and Macon to be at high risk for the spread of the disease. The 19
counties therefore comprise the Department’s CWD management zone. The 11
northeast counties are: Adair, Chariton, Knox, Linn, Macon, Putnam, Randolph,
Schuyler, Scotland, Shelby, and Sullivan. The eight central-Missouri counties
are: Boone, Callaway, Cole, Cooper, Miller, Moniteau, Morgan, and Osage.
RECOMMENDATIONS
MDC strongly encourages hunters in the
19 counties to: not move deer carcasses out of the area where harvested, not
feed deer, have harvested deer tested for CWD, and report sick deer to local
MDC staff.
The disease can be spread to new areas
and infect additional deer through infected carcass parts or soil contaminated
by infected carcass parts. MDC recommends removing meat in the field and
leaving the carcass behind. If hunters must move a carcass before processing,
place the remaining carcass parts after processing in trash bags and properly
dispose of them through a trash service or landfill.
CWD is also transmitted from deer to
deer and can spread more easily when deer gather in unnaturally concentrated
numbers, such as at feeding sites or mineral blocks. MDC has a regulation in
place for Adair, Chariton, Linn, Macon, Randolph, and Sullivan counties that
bans the feeding of deer or placing of mineral blocks.
Hunters can take harvested deer – or
just the head with at least four inches of the neck attached -- to participating
sampling locations to have a tissue sample removed and tested for CWD. Testing
is free and hunters can also receive test results for their harvested deer.
Sampling locations can be found in the Department’s 2015 Fall Deer & Turkey Hunting Regulations and Information
booklet, or on the MDC website at mdc.mo.gov/CWDtesting.
REGULATIONS
CHANGES
The related regulation changes remove
the antler-point restriction (APR) in the 19 counties of the MDC CWD management
zone so young bucks are no longer protected from harvest. Young bucks can
potentially spread the disease to new areas as they search for territories and
mates.
The regulation changes also increase the
availability of firearms antlerless permits from 1 to 2 in the 19 counties. These
additional harvest opportunities can help prevent undesired population increases
in local deer numbers, which can potentially spread the disease.
CHRONIC
WASTING DISEASE
Chronic Wasting Disease infects only
deer and other members of the deer family by causing degeneration of brain
tissue, which slowly leads to death. The disease has no vaccine or cure and is
100-percent fatal.
"There is no way to fully eradicate
chronic wasting disease from an area once it has become well established,"
explained MDC State Wildlife Veterinarian Kelly Straka. "While we do not
expect short-term population impacts from the disease, CWD is likely to have
serious long-term consequences to the health of Missouri's deer herd.
Therefore, we have and will continue to focus on slowing the spread of the
disease among deer in the affected areas, and trying to limit the spread to new
areas of the state."
DEER
HUNTING DATES
About 80 percent of Missouri deer
hunters take their harvest during the fall firearms portion of deer season,
which runs Nov. 14-24. Archery deer hunting continues through Nov. 13 and opens
again from Nov. 25 through Jan. 15, 2016. The firearms antlerless portion will
run Nov. 25 through Dec. 6. The firearms alternative methods portion will run
Dec. 19-29 followed by the firearms late youth portion Jan. 2-3, 2016. Missouri's
early youth weekend ran Oct. 31 and Nov. 1. The firearms deer urban zone
portion ran Oct. 9 – 12.
VALUE
OF DEER HUNTING
Missouri offers some of the best deer
hunting in the country and deer hunting is an important part of many
Missourians' lives and family traditions. The continued spread of Chronic
Wasting Disease in Missouri could reduce future hunting and wildlife-watching
opportunities for Missouri's nearly 520,000 deer hunters and almost two million
wildlife watchers. Deer hunting is also an important economic driver in
Missouri and gives a $1 billion annual boost to the state and local economies. For
more information on Chronic Wasting Disease, visit the MDC website at mdc.mo.gov.
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