JACKSON  — Mississippi Department of Wildlife, Fisheries and Parks reports there were no Chronic Wasting Disease positives detected from velvet season harvests. 

MDWFP Game Check data shows 322 deer harvests have been reported in the first three days of bow season and the three day velvet season. 

According to the CWD dashboard, 358 deer have been sampled in Mississippi so far in Fiscal Year 2025, July 1, 2024 to June 30, 2025, with no positives reported yet. Samples may have come from roadkill deer in addition to hunter harvests. 

Mississippi Department of Wildlife, Fisheries and Parks reports 318 deer have tested positive for CWD since first detection in 2018. There is no cure or vaccine to prevent CWD. 

Lincoln County hunters have turned in 740 samples since 2018 with no positive detections. 

What is CWD

Chronic Wasting Disease is a 100 percent, always fatal prion disease which infects deer and other members of the cervidae family. It is often spread by CWD prions shed in bodily fluids. Healthy deer become infected after contact directly with positive deer or indirectly with prions in the environment. CWD prions persist in the environment for many years. Mississippi State University research has shown the prions can be found on feeders and in scrapes. 

It takes up to 18 months before visible symptoms of CWD can be seen in positive deer and by then the disease is in its final stages. Hunters are encouraged to submit samples from their deer for CWD testing to help with surveillance efforts. 

It is not known what impacts CWD could have on humans. The Center for Disease Control advises people to not eat meat from a CWD positive deer and to have their deer tested. 

MDWFP has several videos about Chronic Wasting Disease. One shows hunters how to drop off a CWD sample, another video shows hunters how to pull their sample to drop it off and a series of videos produced by the Mississippi State University Deer Lab on CWD. 

Visit MDWFP.com to learn more about Chronic Wasting Disease and surveillance efforts in Mississippi.