Another deer detected with chronic wasting disease in Ballard County

The Kentucky Department of Fish and Wildlife Resources confirmed Wednesday that they detected a new case of Chronic Wasting Disease in a wild deer in Ballard County. This is the third case of CWD confirmed in Kentucky’s wild deer population, and the second case in Ballard County.

Tests were performed on tissue collected from a 2-1/2-year-old male white-tailed deer that was hunter-harvested on Nov. 16. The preliminary screening test indicated the tissue was a suspected positive. A secondary test confirmed the presence of the abnormal proteins that cause CWD.

The previous Ballard County detection was in December 2023. The latest case was harvested in the same vicinity.

“Unfortunately, this new CWD-positive detection was not unexpected,” said Dr. Christine Casey, wildlife veterinarian for Kentucky Fish and Wildlife. “CWD-infected animals shed infectious prions into the environment, where they can survive for years, making additional detections in the immediate vicinity of previous detections more likely.”

Ballard and surrounding counties are already within a CWD Surveillance Zone due to the previous detection, so no changes are expected to the surveillance zone counties or management requirements. Counties in the western Kentucky Surveillance Zone include Ballard, Calloway, Carlisle, Fulton, Graves, Henderson, Hickman, Marshall, McCracken, Union and Webster.

Since 2002, Kentucky Fish and Wildlife has CWD-tested more than 70,000 deer and elk from across the state. A CWD Response Plan has been in place most of that time. 

Hunters can aid statewide monitoring efforts by dropping off the heads of legally harvested and telechecked deer for CWD testing and aging at self-serve CWD Sample Drop-off sites or via sample mail-in kits. This service is provided at no cost to hunters. 

Chronic Wasting Disease is an always-fatal neurologic disease that affects deer, elk and other species in the deer family. There is no known cure or vaccine for CWD. The disease is not known to be transmissible to people, but as a precaution the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends not consuming meat from deer that test positive for the disease. 

More information about CWD, the surveillance zone and the agency’s response plan can be found at fw.ky.gov/cwd. 

On the Net:

KDFWR press release