Louisiana leans on hunters to keep ‘zombie deer’ disease in check

By: Elise Plunk

Outlets: Louisiana Illuminator

Published: January 30, 2026

Words: 897

Last Updated: 3 weeks, 2 days ago

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A fatal disease that primarily impacts deer is slowly creeping through populations in northern Louisiana as officials ramp up efforts to control its spread.

Over the past four years, Louisiana has gone from no identified cases of chronic wasting disease to 49 in a concentrated area of the state. To curb transmission, the Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries declared an emergency earlier this month to expand its control efforts beyond the portion …

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