JACKSON, Miss. (AP) — It's now illegal to bring a dead deer carcass back to Mississippi from 24 states and three countries.

The Mississippi Commission on Wildlife, Fisheries and Parks passed a rule in May banning the importation in hopes of keeping chronic wasting disease from infecting Mississippi's deer herd.

The rule also applies to carcasses of elk, moose or caribou from affected states and countries.

The fatal disease typically causes deer to have tremors and other movement problems and lose weight. It has spread as close to Mississippi as Arkansas, although Mississippi officials say it's still legal for the state's hunters to bring in deer killed on the Mississippi River side of levees in Arkansas.

It remains legal to bring in deboned meat, antlers, hides or deer stuffed by a taxidermist.