For the first time, Boone County hunters reported to mandatory chronic wasting disease testing sites Saturday and answered a simple question: “Where’d you shoot that deer?”
Knowing where deer were killed helps Missouri Department of Conservation workers track the potential spread of chronic wasting disease. The disease results in degeneration of the brains and nervous systems of deer, and there are no treatments or vaccines — it is always fatal for infected animals.
Boone County was one of 18 counties added to a chronic wasting disease management zone this year. Counties are added if they have had positive detection of the disease or if they are within 10 miles of a positive detection.
The Conservation Department’s Central Regional Office, located in Columbia, hosted a testing site, which was manned by a handful of employees.
Wildlife biologist John George has been sampling for chronic wasting disease since 2002. He helps remove lymph nodes from deer necks and believes that hunters will follow regulations this year.
“We’re only doing this for two days because it takes way too much staff time to keep this going,” George said. “There’s probably over 700 (Conservation Department) staff working mandatory sampling stations this weekend, and we estimate around 80 to 100 deer at our station this weekend.”
Once lymph nodes are removed from the deer, they’re sent to a wildlife health team who will physically assess the samples and scan them before sending them in batches to a lab at the University of Missouri. It takes around two weeks to get test results, and hunters are able to check the results online via the testing results website.
Conservation Department media specialist Maddie Fennewald recommends that hunters field-dress the deer, a hunting term for cleaning the carcass, and bring in the head attached to 6 inches of the neck or a full carcass to get an accurate sample. She also asks hunters to have their permits and the location of where the deer was killed ready as they arrive.
“We want our constituents to know what’s going on and understand why we do what we do,” Fennewald said. “We rely so heavily on our hunters to bring us these samples.”
The disease has the potential to kill every deer it infects, but chronic wasting disease can take around 18 to 24 months to spread. Biologists believe the broad scope of infection time is dangerous, so knowing where infected deer are slows the spread.
While a deer is being checked, Annie Kittrell-Poehlein, the Conservation Department’s regional business manager, pulls people aside and asks them to point to where they shot the deer. She then marks the point on a printed map of the county with a rock before uploading the coordinates into an internal Conversation Department database.
While Conservation Department workers stay at test sites, Conservation Agent Adam Doerhoff is up early encountering hunters and checking to make sure nobody is violating regulations. He said the fall hunting season is a tradition for many Missourians.
“Hunting can be relaxing and rewarding, and a lot of people go for the food aspect,” Doerhoff said. “It’s a combination of reasons that causes families to go back every year.”
However, as a conservation agent, the most common violation Doerhoff sees is many people hunting without permits.
“We want to cover as many roads as possible and be as visible as we can be. First and foremost, we’re trying to make contacts with hunters,” he said. “We want to be there to answer questions and make sure things are running smoothly.”
Jason Boyt, who has been hunting for about 10 years, had a “successful” morning.
“Hunting is good for population control because they’re always eating the garden, and it’s frustrating,” Boyt said. “My son used to come out with me when he was younger, and it’s just one of those family things. It’s also nice to have meat in the freezer.”
Brothers Ryder and RJ Bechtold have been hunting since they were old enough to hold a gun. It’s become a family activity for the pair.
“Our mom’s not so big on it, but our dad got us into it,” Ryder Bechtold said. “We just live in an area where it’s so easy to get out and hunt, and it brings people together.”
Fennewald said deer hunting is almost cultural in Missouri.
“It’s a huge part of Missourian history, but we are seeing hunter numbers decline nationally,” Fennewald said. “We recognize that a lot of folks are depending on this resource to last them throughout the year, so we try to be mutually beneficial.”
Mandatory testing will last until 8 p.m. Sunday.
