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Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission Steps Up CWD Monitoring
The state of Florida has stepped up CWD Monitoring along the Alabama and Georgia borders after confirmation of a new case of the contagious prion disease this month. The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC) confirmed that the road-killed one-and-a-half-year-old doe was infected with Chronic Wasting Disease (CWD). This second deer was sampled less than a mile south of the 2023 detection of CWD; this is the second case to have been detected in Florida, with both cases being detected in Holmes County.
CWD is believed to be caused by a naturally occurring protein, called a prion, that becomes misfolded and thus resists being broken down by the body the way normal proteins are. When these misfolded proteins are introduced into a healthy member of the deer family, they cause normal prion proteins to misfold. As these proteins accumulate, they begin damaging the animal’s nervous system. CWD can be transmitted directly through animal-to-animal contact or indirectly through contaminated soil, plants, or other materials. There is currently no vaccine, treatment, or cure for CWD.
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This latest case of CWD in Florida is right on the heels of the third confirmed case of CWD in Georgia in Lowndes County. With that case happening five miles north of the Florida border. With this second case of Florida CWD, the FWC and its agency partners are continuing wth their comprehensive response plan to contain this prion disease within the current area it has been detected. With this second case being found so close to the first case of CWD, there are no planned changes to the Management or Enhanced Surveillance Zones. Along with the current statewide CWD testing, FWC will continue with intensive surveillance in the current zones to determine the prevalence and distribution of the disease.
To report deer that are very thin, sick, or dead of unknown causes, please call 866-293-9282 (866-CWD-WATCH).
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