A buck killed in Cole County has tested positive for chronic wasting disease (CWD), the Missouri Department of Conservation announced Tuesday, marking the first time the fatal deer sickness has surfaced outside the state's northern containment zone.
The deer, harvested in Centertown, was one of 14 free-range specimens to test positive for the disease last season, according to the department. All the other cases were found in Macon and Adair counties, which - along with Chariton, Linn, Randolph and Sullivan counties - comprise the Conservation Department's Chronic Wasting Disease Containment Zone.
The Missouri River and at least 40 miles of mostly rural Boone County separate Centertown from the southern border of the containment zone.
The Conservation Department said it is reviewing its containment policies, a process the department expects to last through the summer. That timetable would push back any new regulations until a few weeks before deer season begins Sept. 15.
No one from the department was available for comment Tuesday afternoon.
CWD spreads through prions, which are abnormal proteins that attack the nervous system of deer, elk and moose, according to the department. The prions can spread through direct contact between animals, and they can remain dormant in soil and other surfaces.
Symptoms include dramatic weight loss, stumbling, tremors and slobbering - though infected animals can go years without showing symptoms.
The disease is always fatal. There is no reliable way to screen live animals because labs need to analyze samples of brain tissue.
The department has confirmed 35 cases of CWD in Missouri since the disease was first detected at a private hunting reserve in Linn County. The department has collected more than 3,400 tissue samples from deer last season, and 330 samples have not yet been tested.