A public meeting, sponsored by MDWFP to discuss Chronic Wasting Disease (CWD), will be held Aug. 30 at 6 p.m. at the Warren Central High School Auditorium, Vicksburg.
MDWFP staff will make presentations on the status of CWD and planned monitoring activities for the 2018-2019 Hunting Season. Representatives from Wildlife and Law Enforcement Bureaus will be available to answer questions.
Those unable to attend can view the meeting via Facebook Live on the MDWFP Facebook Page. Viewers can ask questions in the comment box during the video.
On Aug. 15, MDWFP adopted regulations for the revised CWD Management Zone for the 2018-2019 hunting season. Regulations were approved after the 30-day comment period and take effect immediately.
The new zone includes portions of Issaquena, Sharkey, and Warren counties and is identified as all areas south of Highways 14 and 16, areas west of the Yazoo River, all portions of Warren County, and all areas east of the Mississippi River (see map).
The supplemental feeding ban and permitted hog trapping were lifted in Hinds, Claiborne and Yazoo counties. Within the revised zone, supplemental feeding is banned and hog trapping must be permitted through MDWFP.
Since October 1, 2017, MDWFP has sampled more than 1,800 white-tailed deer across Mississippi to test for CWD. Since, all samples sent off for testing have come back not detected for CWD except for one positive buck that was collected on January 25, 2018, in Issaquena County.
For now, the Department has ceased targeted sampling operations but continues to collect samples from road-killed or diseased deer that are reported to MDWFP by the public. The Department hopes to collect 5,000 deer samples from hunter-harvested deer during the 2018-2019 deer seasons statewide.
As MDWFP prepares for the 2018-2019 hunting season, further information will be made available regarding how test samples will be collected from hunter-harvested deer, as well as on a revised CWD management zone and how that will pertain to supplemental feeding and carcass transportation. Hunters will also be informed about best management practices for carcass disposal and processing meat.
For more info or to report a sick animal visit here.
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