CWD Archives - Big Deer

4 06, 2025

New for 2025: Tennessee Hunters Can Now Bait Deer

Clay Hanback2025-06-04T09:48:11-04:00June 4th, 2025|Big Deer TV, BigDeer, CWD, Deer Hunting, whitetail deer|0 Comments

Effective July 1, 2025, hunters in Tennessee can now purchase a special bait license and hunt deer and hogs over a corn pile on private land. The bill, SB869, passed in the state legislature and allows for the creation of a special bait license (in addition to a hunting license). KEY POINTS: The bait license will cost $50 for residents and $100 for non-residents. The TWRA can suspend bait privileges on a county, regional, or statewide basis to manage wildlife populations and prevent the spread of disease, namely chronic wasting disease. This law applies to hunting and baiting on private land and leased private land. Baiting is NOT permitted on any public lands in Tennessee.

28 02, 2025

Track Deer w/Drones, Best States to Tag Two Deer and More News from Across Whitetail Nation

Clay Hanback2025-02-28T09:21:41-05:00February 28th, 2025|Big Deer TV, BigDeer, CWD, Deer Hunting, Deer Management, sportsman channel, whitetail deer|Comments Off on Track Deer w/Drones, Best States to Tag Two Deer and More News from Across Whitetail Nation

Among new regulations enacted in 2024, the Missouri Department of Conservation (MDC) says that hunters can now legally use drones to look for and track wounded deer. Also, the MDC has mandatory Chronic Wasting Disease (CWD) sampling stations for deer harvested during opening weekend of firearms deer season in certain counties. Hunters must take their deer, or the head of it, to a sampling station within the county of harvest on the day of the kill. The West Virginia Division of Natural Resources announces that for all regular deer seasons combined, the annual bag limit for bucks has been reduced from three to two. Louisiana hunters can now track wounded deer with dogs and lights, and if necessary, use [...]

26 01, 2025

Update: Should You Eat a Deer with CWD?

Clay Hanback2025-01-26T12:13:45-05:00January 26th, 2025|Big Deer TV, BigDeer, CWD, Deer Hunting, Deer Management, Hunting News, Shed Hunting, sportsman channel, whitetail deer|Comments Off on Update: Should You Eat a Deer with CWD?

Deer hunters have been wondering, and some have been worrying about it, for many years. Here's the latest on Chronic Wasting Disease: In a recent experiment at Rocky Mountain Laboratories in Montana, scientists tried to contaminate “human cerebral organiods,” or tissues that closely resemble human brain tissue, with injections of Chronic Wasting Disease, which has been documented to infect deer in 35 states and 5 Canadian provinces. For a week the researchers exposed the imitation brain tissues to high concentrations of CWD from 3 different sources. Good news, in ongoing testing, no infection! Yet another scientific finding that CWD does not jump from an infected animal to a human. BUT does this mean it is okay to eat a deer [...]

3 06, 2024

Pennsylvania’s CWD Surveillance of Deer

Clay Hanback2024-06-03T13:55:45-04:00June 3rd, 2024|Big Deer TV, BigDeer, CWD, Hunting News, whitetail deer|Comments Off on Pennsylvania’s CWD Surveillance of Deer

Since July 1, 2023, the PA Game Commission has collected nearly 11,000 CWD samples from deer. Hunter harvested samples from last season made up the bulk of those with over 7,000. CWD was detected in a total of 291 of those hunter-harvested deer. To date, over 440 deer have tested positive for CWD in the 2023-2024 sampling year, up from 426 CWD-positive samples in 2022-23. “CWD surveillance is crucial to managing the disease,” said agency CWD Section Supervisor Andrea Korman. “CWD is a serious threat to deer and elk. Knowing where the disease is allows us to focus our efforts to keep more deer from becoming infected.” One of those efforts is using CWD Deer Management Assistance Program (DMAP) units [...]

5 04, 2024

First Case Of CWD in Indiana Whitetail

Clay Hanback2024-04-05T13:41:09-04:00April 5th, 2024|Big Deer TV, BigDeer, CWD, Deer Hunting, Hunting News, whitetail deer|Comments Off on First Case Of CWD in Indiana Whitetail

The Indiana DNR has confirmed the state’s first positive case of chronic wasting disease (CWD) in an adult white-tailed buck that was harvested in LaGrange County in fall 2023. CWD is a fatal infectious disease, caused by a misfolded protein called a prion, that affects the nervous system in white-tailed deer. It can spread from deer-to-deer contact, bodily fluids, or through contaminated environments and remains in the soil for many years. The sample for this case was collected by a licensed taxidermist through DNR’s CWD Taxidermist Incentive Program. CWD has previously been detected in the four states bordering Indiana (Ohio, Michigan, Illinois, and Kentucky) and is now found in 33 states. Because CWD had been detected in Michigan near the [...]