GFB News Magazine

Chronic Wasting Disease found in Lanier County deer

by Jennifer Whittaker

Posted on March 8, 2025 7:07 PM

istock photo

A deer killed in Lanier County by a hunter in January is the first in Georgia to test positive for Chronic Wasting Disease (CWD), the Georgia Department of Natural Resources’ (DNR) Wildlife Resources Division (WRD) announced Jan. 23. The deer was tested as part of routine surveillance for CWD.

The sample was taken from a 2 ½-year-old male white-tailed deer hunted on private property. WRD has implemented a CWD Response Plan and is taking additional samples from the area. 

“I want to assure our hunters that deer hunting will continue to thrive in Georgia, despite this current discovery,” said Georgia DNR Commissioner Walter Rabon. “Working together with our hunters and all Georgians, we will manage CWD and maintain healthy deer herds.”  

CWD is a fatal neurological disease of deer, elk, and moose caused by misfolded proteins called prions. There are no treatments nor preventative vaccines. CWD prions shed into the environment are not destroyed by heat, freezing temperatures, drying out nor sunlight.

The DNR CWD Response Plan is in effect and a CWD Management Area has been established, which includes the county where the positive sample was found and any county that touches a 5-mile radius around the location of the positive sample. The current CWD Management Area includes Lanier and Berrien counties.    

DNR is now determining how far CWD has spread and the percent of deer with CWD in the management area. DNR will do that with landowner cooperation through “cluster sampling” and testing deer killed via crop depredation permits.   

CWD was first discovered in 1967 in Fort Collins, Colorado, and has been reported in 36 states and 5 Canadian provinces: Alabama, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Virginia, Washington, West Virginia, Wisconsin, Wyoming and Alberta, British Columbia, Manitoba, Quebec and Saskatchewan.

There is no known transmission of CWD to humans, however, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends that hunters harvesting a deer, elk, or moose from an area known to have CWD test the animal for CWD before consuming the meat. Meat from an animal that tests positive should not be eaten. Unlike viruses and bacteria, cooking the meat does not kill the diseased prions.

CWD isn’t known to infect pets, cattle or other livestock, the Georgia DNR says. Visit https://georgiawildlife.com/CWD for more information.

To Prevent Spreading CWD 

• Don’t move live deer. This is the greatest risk for introducing CWD to new areas. 

• Dispose of carcasses properly. Don’t bring whole carcasses into Georgia from out of state or move them outside a CWD Management Area. Any carcass parts you don’t plan to eat should be sent to a landfill or buried deep to prevent scavenging. 

• Report sick/abnormal deer to your nearest WRD Office.