MS Dead Deer Found With Fatal Disease

Mississippi's efforts to keep out a debilitating deer disease appear to have failed.

The state Department of Wildlife, Fisheries, and Parks announced Friday that a white-tailed deer found dead January 25 in Issaquena County has tested positive for the chronic wasting disease.

It's the first deer found in Mississippi with the disease.

The contagious and fatal neurological disease typically causes deer to have tremors and other movement problems and lose weight.  The disease was already present among deer in Arkansas and 23 other states.

The department is ordering hunters to stop supplemental feeding of wildlife in Claiborne, Hinds, Issaquena, Sharkey, Warren, (my hometown county) and Yazoo counties as part of its response plan.

Mississippi last year banned the import of dead deer carcasses from affected areas in hopes of keeping out the disease.