CWD. The three letters that Louisiana deer hunters have heard for years and prayed would never be used in association with Louisiana deer.

The dreaded Chronic Wasting Disease in whitetail deer has been discovered in all of Louisiana's bordering states; Texas, Arkansas and Mississippi.

Yet, the whitetail herd of Louisiana deer continued to seemingly dodge the lethal bullet of this debilitating, always fatal disease.

Apparently, those days are most probably over.

From Louisiana Department of Wildlife & Fisheries
From Louisiana Department of Wildlife & Fisheries
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Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries has just issued an alert that a reported case of Chronic Wasting Disease has been discovered in a whitetail deer from Tensas Parish.

The tentative diagnosis was made after LDWF staff received samples from an emaciated, hunter harvested, deer on private land.

The suspect sample was sent to the National Veterinary Services Laboratory in Ames, Iowa.

If it proves to be positive, this would be Louisiana's first confirmed case of CWD.

LDWF explains the deadly disease, which has never been shown to affect humans, the following way:

CWD is a neurodegenerative disease of white-tailed deer and other members of the family Cervidae.  It is caused by a prion, an infectious, misfolded protein particle, and is 100-percent fatal in affected deer after an indeterminate incubation period.  There is no treatment or preventative vaccine for CWD.  CWD-infected deer may exhibit signs of weight loss and emaciation, salivation, frequent drinking and urination, incoordination, circling, and lack of fear of people, and always results in death of the animal.

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