JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (AP) — Missouri conservation officials say tests of deer from the fall hunting season have indicated no new cases of chronic wasting disease in free-ranging deer.
The Department of Conservation says nearly 3,700 deer were tested. About 40 percent of the animals came from a containment zone of a half-dozen counties in north-central Missouri.
Chronic wasting disease causes degeneration of the brain in deer. It is spread by contact among the animals and through infected soil.
Conservation officials say there have been 10 cases of the disease in free-ranging deer. They were identified in 2012 and early 2013 and were in part of Macon County. The agency says the disease first was found in Missouri in 2010 at a captive deer hunting facility.
