Officials with the Kentucky Department of Fish and Wildlife Resources announced Wednesday that Chronic Wasting Disease (CWD) is confirmed in a wild deer harvested by a hunter earlier this hunting season in Pulaski County.
Two independent types of tests were performed on tissue collected from a 2.5-year-old male white-tailed deer. Both tests yielded the same result: the deer was infected with the abnormal proteins that cause Chronic Wasting Disease.
This is the second wild deer in Kentucky confirmed with Chronic Wasting Disease, an always-fatal neurologic disease that affects deer, elk and other species in the deer family.
Chronic Wasting Disease has previously been confirmed in a wild deer in Ballard County in December 2023 and nine deer from a captive cervid facility in Breckinridge County, with one in October 2024 and eight in August 2025.
Chronic Wasting Disease is caused by abnormal proteins called prions. There is no known cure or vaccine, and the disease is always fatal in infected animals. The disease is not known to be transmissible to people, but as a precaution the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recommends not consuming meat from deer that test positive for the disease. Kentucky Fish and Wildlife always recommends not consuming meat taken from animals that appear to be sick or in poor condition.
As Kentucky Fish and Wildlife staff continue to gather additional details about the infected deer, agency officials are in close communication with national, state and local partners and will reference the agency’s Chronic Wasting Disease Response Plan in response to this new detection.
As part of the response plan, the agency will schedule a public meeting in Pulaski County in November to discuss the disease, available Chronic Wasting Disease testing options and any potential hunting regulation changes. In addition, an update on Chronic Wasting Disease and suggested actions will be brought before the Kentucky Fish and Wildlife Commission for their review at the commission’s planned quarterly meeting on December 5, 2025, in Frankfort.
Biologists collected tissue from the animal as part of ongoing Chronic Wasting Disease Surveillance efforts. Since 2002, Kentucky Fish and Wildlife has Chronic Wasting Disease-tested more than 70,000 deer and elk from across the state.
Fourteen counties near the previous positive detections make up the Chronic Wasting Disease Surveillance Zone. Ballard, Breckinridge, Calloway, Carlisle, Fulton, Graves, Hardin, Henderson, Hickman, Marshall, McCracken, Meade, Union and Webster counties are under carcass transportation and baiting restrictions in an effort to monitor and contain Chronic Wasting Disease. Hunters in Henderson, Union and Webster counties also must take their harvested deer to a staffed check station or use a Chronic Wasting Disease Sample Drop-Off Site the first three days of modern gun season.
Hunters can aid Kentucky Fish and Wildlife’s statewide monitoring efforts by dropping off the heads of legally harvested and telechecked deer for Chronic Wasting Disease testing and aging at self-serve Chronic Wasting Disease Sample Drop-off sites or via sample mail-in kits. This service is provided at no cost to hunters. Detailed location information, instructions and additional resources may be found at the Chronic Wasting Disease Sample Drop-Off Sites and Chronic Wasting Disease Sample Mail-in Kit webpages on the department’s website (fw.ky.gov). Hunters will be promptly notified if a deer they harvested tests positive for Chronic Wasting Disease.
Deer that appear to be sick but do not have an obvious injury can be reported using the department’s sick deer online reporting form; reports will be reviewed by the agency’s wildlife health program staff, who may contact the person submitting the report if additional information is needed.
For more information on Chronic Wasting Disease, please visit the department’s Chronic Wasting Disease webpage and follow its social media channels. More information about Chronic Wasting Disease is available through the Center for Disease Control and cwd-info.org websites. For questions, contact the department’s Information Center at 800-858-1549, or at info.center@ky.gov, weekdays 8 a.m. – 4:30 p.m. (Eastern), except holidays.
Source: KYFW
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