By Jessica Domel
Field Editor

White-tailed deer season is just around the corner. Although a captive deer in Medina County has tested positive for Chronic Wasting Disease (CWD), officials at the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department (TPWD) encourage hunters to take advantage of this year’s season.

“We’ve had a lot of rainfall. I think we’re going to see big antlers out there. I think every hunter should be as excited as I am,” Clayton Wolf, TPWD wildlife division director, said in an interview with the Texas Farm Bureau (TFB) Radio Network.

As deer hunters prepare to head out this fall, Wolf encourages them to stay up-to-date on the latest involving CWD.

“Continue to do what you’re passionate about,” Wolf said. “Continue to look at our correspondence. Encourage everybody to go hunting because hunting is wildlife conservation.”

CWD is a 100 percent fatal neurological disease that affects deer, elk, moose and other members of the cervid family.

While CWD is similar to Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy (BSE or “mad cow”), there is no evidence the disease can be transmitted to humans.

CWD is spread through the natural movements of infected animals and their carcasses by way of prions that attack the host’s nervous system.

The prions can spread to an area and continue to infect cervids even after the original host is dead.

There is no known cure for the disease and its eradication is nearly impossible once established in a population of deer. For that reason, TPWD and the Texas Animal Health Commission (TAHC) placed Medina County under quarantine after a CWD positive result was found.

The last time an animal in Texas tested positive for CWD was in 2012 when a mule deer was found with the disease in far West Texas. A quarantine was set in place in that area, too, as were mandatory check stations.

TPWD doesn’t anticipate any mandatory check stations this year for white-tailed deer.

“We believe the Texas Animal Health Commission herd plan for the site where we know CWD exists will provide the appropriate control, but clearly we’re going to want to get some samples from adjoining areas,” Wolf said.

There is no live animal test for CWD currently accepted by federal animal health officials, and animals with CWD cannot be diagnosed by symptoms alone.

CWD symptoms include emaciation, excessive salivation, lack of muscle coordination, excessive thirst and urination and difficulty swallowing.

“I think hunters will notice a lot of information from us like, ‘Here’s where you can bring your deer to have it sampled.’” Wolf said. “Obviously in those areas that we need to sample more, we’re going to blanket those areas and other parts of the state as well.”

TPWD and TAHC will have both directed and individual CWD outreach this hunting season, especially with ranchers whose property adjoins any CWD-positive site.

So far, it’s been a community effort between the landowner where the captive deer tested positive, TPWD, TAHC and other stakeholders.

“By simply making their harvest available for us to collect samples, (hunters) will be doing their part,” Wolf said.

TPWD and TAHC both have CWD fact sheets available on their respective websites. They encourage hunters to read those and spread the word with fellow hunters.

When hunting season is over, TAHC and TPWD will review their CWD plan and make changes, if necessary, for the best of the state.

“I’m very optimistic we can manage this, and I’m optimistic we can maintain the health of our wild deer, and at the same time, maintain the health of the breeder deer,” Dr. Dee Ellis, TAHC executive director, said in an interview with the TFB Radio Network.

Health officials advise hunters not to eat meat from animals that could be or are infected. Hunters are encouraged to wear latex gloves when field dressing deer, wash their hands with a half-bleach and half-water solution after harvesting, bone out meat and avoid the brain and spine.

Hunters who would like to test their deer for CWD may do so at their own cost through the Texas Veterinary Medical Diagnostics Laboratory. Additional information on that process can be found on the CWD fact sheets provided by TPWD and TAHC or from your local veterinarian.

TAHC is also hosting workshops across the state in the next two months to train i