CWD Control Area

CWD positive deer harvested in Tensas Parish.

The Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries (LDWF) continues its surveillance work in the Chronic Wasting Disease (CWD) control area in the northeast Louisiana parishes of Franklin, Madison, and Tensas. 

LDWF instituted its CWD Incident Action Plan in those three parishes in response to an adult buck harvested in December 2021 in Tensas Parish being diagnosed with CWD, a disease that is always fatal to deer. It was the first deer recorded with CWD in the state, making Louisiana the 29th state to discover the disease.

Other than the initial case, CWD was not detected in any of the current 218 samples collected in these three parishes and submitted to the Louisiana Animal Disease Diagnostic Laboratory for testing. Additional samples are still being collected and analyzed, as LDWF continues its surveillance in this CWD Control Area .

The three-parish area remains under a feeding and carcass export ban.

What this order means:

LDWF will present a notice of intent to the Louisiana Wildlife and Fisheries Commission during its April 7 meeting to help mitigate the spread of the disease. Public meetings will also be held in the coming months.

For more information, contact deer program manager Johnathan Bordelon at jbordelon@wlf.la.gov or LDWF State Veterinarian Dr. Jim LaCour at jlacour@wlf.la.gov.