The efforts by the Alabama Department of Conservation and Natural Resources (ADCNR) effort to limit Chronic Wasting Disease (CWD) to the extreme northwestern part of the state may have taken a surprising punch to the face.

The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission announced last week a road-killed deer in Holmes County tested positive for CWD. Holmes County shares a border with Alabama’s Geneva County in extreme southeast Alabama.

CWD, an always-fatal disease, has sometimes been called the Zombie Deer Disease. It is a member of a family of diseases that includes similar diseases such as mad cow disease in cattle. CWD affects white-tailed deer and typically results in strange behavior due to microscopic changes in the brain of affected animals. In latter stages of the disease, signs may include listlessness, lowering of the head, weight loss, repetitive walking in set patterns and a lack of responsiveness before the animals die.

During deer season, hunters throughout the state will be encouraged to provide deer heads for CWD sampling. The public is also encouraged to report roadkill deer and deer displaying unusual behavior to their local WFF District Office.

The announcement in Florida activated Alabama’s emergency response plan. ADCNR officials say it will install self-service, drop-off sampling freezers throughout southeast Alabama. Hunters in those counties will be encouraged to drop off the heads of the deer they kill for testing. The locations of those freezers will be announced closer to the deer hunting season that begins with bow season in mid-October.

After CWD was confirmed in both south Tennessee and eastern Mississippi, Alabama’s first case of CWD was detected in Lauderdale County in northwest Alabama early in 2022. Alabama initiated its emergency plan immediately banning hunters from other states from transportation of the carcasses of dead into the state. There have been just three cases of CWD detected in Lauderdale County. The disease has not been detected in any other Alabama county.