Monitoring and testing efforts for the 2019-2020 chronic wasting disease (CWD) surveillance year have been completed, confirming 46 new cases of the deadly deer disease.
These new findings bring the total number of CWD cases in the state to 162. More than 137,000 deer have been tested since the first cases of CWD were found in free-ranging deer in Missouri in 2012.
The 46 new cases were found in the following counties: 3 in Adair, 6 in Franklin, 1 in Jefferson, 8 in Linn, 8 in Macon, 2 in Oregon, 2 in Perry, 1 in Polk, 10 in Ste. Genevieve, 2 in Stone and 3 in Taney.
Previously this season, 25 of the 46 new cases of CWD in Missouri were confirmed from nearly 29,000 tissue samples collected from white-tailed deer and submitted for disease testing. Most of the tissue samples were taken from hunter-harvested deer.
The Conservation Department has also confirmed an additional 21 of the 46 new cases of CWD through its post-season targeted culling efforts in January, February and early March in areas where previous cases of CWD have been found.
There were 1,390 participating landowners who helped MDC staff remove nearly 2,400 deer in those areas to manage CWD.
All deer harvested through targeted culling that did not test positive for the disease were either returned to the landowner or donated to local food pantries through the Share the Harvest venison-donation program.
Post-season targeted culling can help decrease CWD transmission by reducing the number of potentially infected deer within infected areas. Missouri and other states, such as Illinois, have successfully limited the percent of deer infected with CWD by sustaining a long-term, targeted-culling management program.
More information on targeted culling efforts is available the CWD webpage under “Post Season Targeted Culling.”