While the positive cases of chronic wasting disease in deer harvested in Jefferson County will likely go up more when test results from post-season targeted culling are compiled, the numbers from the regular 2022-23 season continue to reveal prevalence and spread.
Five additional cases were discovered in Jefferson County in deer that were tested this fall. All of them were in the county’s CWD triangle that is bounded by I-55, US Hwy. 67 and the southern border with Ste. Genevieve and St. Francois counties.
While that number is down from the overall total last year, when 12 new cases were discovered in the area, this year’s data does not yet include results from post-season targeted culling efforts, which are concentrated in the areas where the disease has been found in the past.
The five new cases in Jefferson County so far this year are among 78 documented statewide. Those diseased deer were discovered through sampling 31,780 animals, mostly during the mandatory check required during opening weekend of firearms hunting season in counties like Jefferson in management zones.
Four positive tests for CWD were found this year in deer outside the management zones. Those tests were conducted by the state through voluntary submission by hunters at approved taxidermists and meat processors.
The positive of that small number, out of 5,120 tests, is offset by the number of new cases found in nine counties where the disease had not been previously detected. CWD management zones are set up to include counties within ten miles of existing cases.
For example, St. Francois County has been included in the zone with Jefferson County since the disease was discovered in a deer south of Festus in 2016. This year for the first time, a deer harvested just south of the Jefferson County border near Hwy. 67 tested positive.
Last year the first case of CWD was documented in a deer in Washington County near Blackwell. Other counties with first-time discoveries this year include Gasconade, Carroll, Dallas, Hickory, Livingston, and Ray, which all had one new case, and Barton and Sullivan counties, which had two and three positive tests respectively. All of those new cases mean that mandatory testing is likely to expand for the 2023 hunting season.
The bad news for St. Francois County is overshadowed by results from Jefferson County’s other neighbors. Ste. Genevieve County continues to be one of the hottest spots in the state for increased prevalence, and Franklin County saw its numbers soar in reporting so far.
Last year Ste. Genevieve County had the highest total of new cases in the state with 15, and this year the 13 documented cases are second only to 16 in Franklin County, where 30 cases had been discovered over the past seven years. Positive cases in Franklin County are clustered in the area south of Hwy. 50 and north of I-44 between St. Clair and Sullivan. In Ste. Genevieve, the positive cases are spread out from Bloomsdale to the Perry County line.
Post-season targeted culling will continue in Jefferson County until March 15. Through these efforts with participating landowners in core areas, more than 1,000 deer have been removed and tested since 2017. In Macon and Linn counties, where the disease was first detected in deer, 2,000 deer have been removed through culling over the past 10 years, and the totals this year for positive cases there include six in Linn and seven in Macon.
Deer harvested through post-season targeted culling are all tested for CWD. Those that do not have the disease are returned to the landowners or donated to area food pantries as ground venison.
John Winkelman has been writing about outdoors news and issues in Jefferson County for more than 30 years and is the Associate Editor for Outdoor Guide Magazine. If you have story ideas for the Leader outdoor news page, e-mail ogmjohnw@aol.com, and you can find more outdoor news and updates at johnjwink.com.