MARIES COUNTY — The Missouri Department of Conservation (MDC) has updated information available about chronic wasting disease (CWD) in the area ahead of the 2024-25 deer season.

According to MDC’s website, CWD is a deadly illness affecting white-tailed deer and other cervids. Misshapen proteins cause the disease by concentrating in the brain and lymph nodes of infected animals. The disease is more likely to occur in adult male deer. Symptoms of the disease include excessive salivation, drooping head and/or ears, tremors, emaciation, lack of coordination and change in behavior. CWD is always fatal to infected deer. There is no known cure.

MDC’s strategy for limiting the spread of the disease is to closely monitor the deer population and frequently test deer samples within counties within the CWD management zone. As a way of obtaining more samples, the agency provided permits to property owners earlier this year to kill and test a limited number of deer in what it determined to be the core area of CWD threat in the county.

The 2024-25 hunting season is Maries County’s first in the management zone. Seventeen other counties, including neighboring Osage and Phelps counties, are new to the management zone, which now includes 70 of Missouri’s 114 counties. All the counties bordering Maries County are in the zone except for Miller County.

Maries County joined the management zone after MDC identified CWD samples in one white-tail deer in the county during the last hunting season. The agency identified samples from two white-tail deer in Osage County during the same period.

Counties within the CWD management zone have stricter rules for how people within them may interact with deer. During Nov. 16-17, hunters who harvest a deer in designated CWD Management Zone counties must take the deer or its head to a mandatory CWD sampling station on the day of harvest. Maries County is one of the areas designated for mandatory sampling. Its sampling locations will be at Vienna City Park and Vichy Community Park. Sampling stations will be open from 7:30 a.m. to 8 p.m.

MDC has several tips for hunters bringing deer to sampling stations. Field dress and telecheck deer before arrival. Hunters may bring the carcass or just the head with at least 6 inches of the neck attached. The person who harvested the deer must be present. Hunters should be prepared to provide their conservation number and identify the harvest location on a map. Paper permits should be detached from the deer for easier access. Digital permits should be readily available. The deer should be positioned in the vehicle with the head and neck easily accessible.

People in counties within the CWD management zone are prohibited year-round from using grain, salt products, minerals and other consumable products to attract deer. Carcasses harvested within a management zone county are subject to transportation restrictions. Those deer must be telechecked before leaving the county. Hunters wishing to transport any part of the deer with the spinal column or brain present may only do so within 48 hours of exiting the county if they deliver the carcass to a licensed meat processor or the head to a licensed taxidermist or to an approved MDC CWD sampling site. On Nov. 16-17, hunters must take the carcasses to a sampling site.

Maries County’s addition to the CWD management zone brings some changes to the typical regulations for harvesting deer, such as the removal of the antler-point restriction. According to a MDC press release, the restriction’s removal will help to slow the spread of the disease by removing protections from young bucks, which are the segment of the deer population most likely to spread the disease through their movement. Hunters in Maries County may now fill four firearms antlerless permits.

Other new changes to deer hunting this year include the allowance of drones to track wounded deer and increases to permit prices.

More information about CWD management and the upcoming hunting season is available online at mdc.mo.gov/hunting-trapping.The MDC 2024 hunting guide is available anywhere that sells hunting licenses. The 2024-25 hunting season schedule is as follows:

Archery Deer: Sept. 15 through Nov. 15 and Nov. 27 through Jan. 15, 2025

Archery Turkey Portion: Sept. 15 through Nov. 15 and Nov. 27 through Jan. 15, 2025

Firearms Turkey Portion: Oct. 1-31

Firearms Deer Early Antlerless Portion: Oct. 11-13 (in open counties)

Firearms Deer Early Youth Portion: Nov. 2-3

Firearms Deer November Portion: Nov. 16-26

Firearms Deer CWD Portion: Nov. 27 – Dec. 1 (in open counties)

Firearms Deer Late Youth Portion: Nov. 29 – Dec. 1

Firearms Deer Late Antlerless Portion: Dec. 7-15 (in open counties)

Firearms Deer Alternative Methods Portion: Dec. 28 - Jan. 7, 2025