Fatal Deer Disease Promotes Extra Hunting Season in Three Tennessee Counties

NASHVILLE, Tennessee (WTVF) – A deer disorder known as Chronic Disease of Waste or CWD led the Tennessee Wildlife Resource Agency to create an additional deer hunting season in three Tennessee counties by the end of the month.

Chronic degenerative disease is fatal in deer. It causes a brain infection, similar to mad cow disease, except that CWD is not known to spread to humans.

TWRA officials say there is still a lot to learn about the disease; so when they confirmed 21 CWD cases in deer in western Tennessee, they knew they had to take action never before taken, including the new deer season in Fayette and Hardeman counties. It is where the infected deer was located, as well as the neighboring county of McNairy.

Under a new regulation, if deer are caught on weekends during the new season, they need to be tested for the disease by TWRA.

"We are capitalizing on these opportunities to get more samples to determine how much disease there is and where it is," said TWRA's Chuck Yoest.

The TWRA says you should not eat cervids with CWD, and a new restriction in the three counties now prevents hunters from taking the deer out of the area without first processing them so they can keep the disease under control.