The Louisiana Wildlife and Fisheries Commission (LWFC) ratified a Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries (LDWF) Secretarial Declaration of Emergency (DE) expanding the Chronic Wasting Disease (CWD) Control Area in east central Louisiana. The action came during Thursday’s (Feb. 5) monthly commission meeting in Baton Rouge.
The DE was issued Jan. 9 in response to a confirmed CWD detection in a hunter-harvested white-tailed buck in Concordia Parish on Richard K. Yancey Wildlife Management Area (WMA).
The new Control Area includes all of Catahoula and Concordia parishes and portions of Avoyelles, LaSalle, Pointe Coupee and Rapides parishes. The existing CWD control area was expanded to include these new areas.
It restricts baiting and feeding within the CWD Control Area. The portions of the CWD Control Area referred to as the Enhanced Mitigation Zone and Buffer Zone include varying restrictions on bait. While baiting and feeding are prohibited within the Enhanced Mitigation Zone, baiting is allowed within the CWD Buffer Zone through methods explained in the DE. In addition, deer carcass transport rules are included that prohibit the export of certain deer parts. Click here to see the full DE and map.
LDWF has also implemented its CWD Response Plan and will continue ongoing CWD surveillance efforts in the area. A NOI will be introduced to promulgate permanent rules for the CWD control area while this action is in effect.
The 3.5-year-old buck was voluntarily submitted for sampling and later confirmed by the National Veterinary Services Laboratory in Ames, Iowa in January 2026. The detection is the first confirmed CWD positive in Concordia Parish.
The first CWD-positive deer was detected in Louisiana in 2022. At present, 53 CWD-positive deer have been detected, which include a single detection in both Catahoula and Concordia parishes, with the remaining detections from Tensas Parish.
There is no statewide feeding ban included in this action.
CWD is infectious, always fatal, and has no treatment. CWD is part of a group of diseases know as transmissible spongiform encephalopathies (TSEs). These diseases cause irreversible damage to brain tissue in deer, which leads to excessive salivation, neurological symptoms, emaciation, and death of the animal. Additionally, CWD is shed by infected deer onto the landscape and can persist in the environment indefinitely, spreading the disease to other deer. Emergency action is required to mitigate further spread of the disease.
Although CWD has not been shown to be contagious to humans, the Centers for Disease Control and the World Health Organization recommend against the human consumption of deer known to be infected with CWD. Also, it is recommended that people hunting in areas known to harbor CWD-infected deer have their deer tested for the disease prior to consuming the animals. LDWF will provide testing for hunter-harvested deer free of charge.
For more information and control area maps on CWD, go to https://www.wlf.louisiana.gov/page/cwd.