Louisiana Issues Emergency CWD Orders

The National Veterinary Services Laboratory in Ames, Iowa, has confirmed that Chronic Wasting Disease was found in a sample from an adult buck harvested recently on private land in northeast Tensas Parish, the Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries announced.

This is the same deer diagnosed with CWD, which always deadly in deer, earlier this month by the Louisiana Animal Disease Diagnostic Laboratory. The hunter-harvested deer is the first to be discovered with CWD in Louisiana.

After that earlier finding, LDWF, in accordance with a Declaration of Emergency order by the Louisiana Wildlife and Fisheries Commission, imposed a feeding and baiting ban as well as deer carcass export restrictions in Tensas and nearby Franklin and Madison parishes.

What this order means:

• All supplemental feeding, including mineral or salt licks, is prohibited in Tensas, Franklin and Madison parishes. The purpose of this feeding ban is to reduce the potential for the spread of CWD in Louisiana by reducing the risk of exposure when deer are concentrated around feeding sites.
• The use of approved bait not normally ingested by deer for feral hog trapping will be allowed. All bait must be placed and contained within the trap itself. Backyard bird feeders are also exempt from this supplemental feeding prohibition.
• The export of cervid carcasses or part of a cervid carcass originating within Tensas Franklin and Madison parishes is prohibited, except for: meat that is cut and wrapped; meat that has been boned out; quarters or other portions of meat with no part of the spinal column or head attached, antlers, clean skull plates with antlers, cleaned skulls without tissue attached, capes, tanned hides, finished taxidermy mounts and cleaned cervid teeth.

To see the complete declaration of emergency, go to https://www.wlf.louisiana.gov/resources/category/commission-action-items. For an in-depth analysis of CWD and the actions LDWD has instituted, please view https://www.facebook.com/ldwffb/videos/914728619236054.

For more information, contact Dr. Jim LaCour at jlacour@wlf.la.gov.