Skinny, if I may, I know many of you are aware by now, that CWD has been confirmed in a seemingly wild deer in the MS Delta. That hits rather close to home. There has been a thread started by Skinny, to address the issue and see what plans there may be to deal with the problem if, or when, it is detected in our home state. I have attached a link to the AL DCNR response plan, as written in 2013. The plan clearly addresses what the state's response would be in an affected area. The reason I want you each to take the time to read this is to understand the reasoning for any actions that are taken if a positive sample is confirmed. Also, if you read this, you will not be surprised by any actions taken. Currently, I am not aware of any legislative changes that are on the table to combat CWD, but I am fairly certain there will be discussions about the response plan based on the latest reports coming out of MS. If any changes or amendments are necessary an updated version will be published or made available. In addition to this response plan we currently, and have been for the last several years, collect samples from wild deer including road kills, hunter harvested and suspect deer. Road kills are an important segment to tests for potential disease because they are more susceptible to road mortality while ill. Suspect deer are any deer showing signs of neurological distress or illness. Typically, in the buck segment, these deer are suffering from pedicle damage or a brain abscess. None-the-less, even with clinical symptoms of a brain abscess these deer are still tested. Hunter harvested deer make up the remaining samples. The target is 100 deer per district. Some years we reach this goal, and others we do not. It takes a lot of hours and days, among other responsibilities, to collect, label, and store these samples. I would assume there could be a greater effort at surveillance in my near future. I believe the most important step to dealing with this problem is EARLY detection. I wanted you, as hunters and sportsmen and women, to be aware of the effort being made by the DCNR to detect CWD.

DCNR Response Plan