If you drive past a dead deer with an orange X spray-painted on its side, don’t be alarmed.
Texas Parks and Wildlife Department (TPWD) is taking samples from four-legged roadkill and from live deer that appear sick to test for chronic wasting disease (CWD), a condition that causes loss of coordination, a droopy head or ears, a lack of fear of humans, excessive drooling, and dramatic weight loss in deer.
“These deer have not been ‘culled’ but are deer that have been killed by automobiles,” said Lerrin Johnson, a wildlife public information officer with TPWD. “Staff take samples from these recently killed animals to further CWD sampling and monitoring.”
“The public can call either their local biologist to report a dead deer, but we also have staff that patrol through high-mortality speed areas.”
To contact one of six TPWD biologists overseeing Comal County, click here.
Comal County Pct. 1 Commissioner Doug Leecock said Animal Control does not get involved in TPWD activities unless requested.
The county only removes dead deer from county roadways.
“I am not aware that we’ve been requested to report dead deer; however, ’tis the season to find dead deer along the side of a highway, so they’ll have no shortage of sampling supply,” he said.
Testing
Testing deer for CWD enables wildlife biologists and animal health officials to gain a clearer understanding of the disease’s prevalence and distribution across Texas, TPWD posted on its website. If not managed properly, the disease could have devastating, long-term impacts on the state’s white-tailed and mule deer.
The bad news is that visible symptoms don’t appear until just before death. CWD’s incubation period can span years, so the first indication of the disease in a herd is often found through surveillance testing rather than observed clinical signs.
Early detection and proactive monitoring improve the state’s response time to the detection of CWD and can greatly reduce the risk of further disease spread.
TPWD is the state agency responsible for managing and conserving Texas’s natural resources, including wildlife and parks.