AUSTIN, Texas – Texas Parks and Wildlife issued an order restricting the movement of deer from breeding facilities across the state. This comes after a fatal disease, known as Chronic Wasting Disease (CWD), was detected at initially six different deer breeding facilities prompting an investigation.
CWD is an always fatal, contagious, neurological disease that affects deer, elk, and moose. If left unchecked, CWD can have devasting effects on the deer population and hunting.
“If people think there’s sick deer on the landscape, they won’t participate in that…we’re talking over $2 billion dollars, deer hunting is a huge impact of to Texas”, said John Silovsky, the Wildlife Division Director for the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department.
264 deer breeding sites now have restrictions placed on them, pausing the movement of deer, to mitigate the spread of the disease. The department is working with the Texas Animal Health Commission to investigate and survey the scope of the CWD across the state and take further measures if needed.
Silovsky encourages deer hunters to get their game tested for CWD, free of charge, at a number of facilities across the state. For a map of where you can take your game to get tested before processing, click here. For a list of positive CWD cases in Texas click here, and for more information on the disease click here.