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The Louisiana Wildlife and Fisheries Department recommends that deer hunters not use additional feeds because of the increased risk of spreading diseases, including chronic debilitating disease (CWD), in deer using dots bait.
LDWF instead encourages hunters to focus on managing the native forage base on land through fires, mechanical handling of vegetation and the application of appropriate fertilizers.
Contact the LDWF's private land biologist for recommendations.
MDC has not been detected in Louisiana. However, the disease was discovered in Issaquena County, Mississippi on January 25 at the beginning of this year.
The MDC-positive skeleton was discovered just a few miles from the Louisiana border on the east side of the Mississippi River.
LDWF sampled 300 deer in the buffer zone, located within 40 km of Issaquena County, including the parishes of East Carroll, Madison and Tensas.
CWD was not detected in any sampled deer.
This sample size provides a 95% confidence interval for sampling to detect a MDC at a prevalence rate of 1%.
The CWD has been discovered in 25 states, including Texas, Arkansas and Mississippi.
MDC is a deadly, life-threatening neurodegenerative disease that affects members of the deer family, which includes white-tailed deer.
The disease is caused by misfolded proteins called prions.
These prions can be disseminated in saliva, urine, feces and decaying carcasses.
Infectious substances can contaminate the soil, thus becoming available for uptake by plants, increasing transmission to other individuals when plants are consumed.
Once the deer have consumed the prion and become infected, it develops clinical signs, including weight loss, salivation, neurological signs and finally death. Clinical signs may not appear until 16 to 24 months after deer infection.
LDWF will provide increased monitoring of CWD in hunted deer caught by hunters in the East Carroll, Madison and Tensas parishes during this hunting season and will continue the normal monitoring of CWD across the state. .
The LDWF has tested nearly 9,000 deer for CWD since 2002 and has not detected the disease.
Deer hunters who wish to have their crop analyzed can contact the LDWF regional offices throughout the state.
These offices may take samples during business hours, from 8 am to 4:30 pm, Monday to Friday.
Contact the office before your hunt to receive information on the proper treatment of your deer harvest for proper sampling.
LDWF is continuing its cooperative discussions with other state and federal agencies in the fight against CWD and to prevent it from entering the state.
Go to http://www.wlf.louisiana.gov/hunting/CWD for more information on CWD.
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