Deer in two new counties tested positive for chronic wasting disease, the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission reported Monday.
Chronic wasting disease is an incurable, transmissible, fatal neurological disease that affects cervids such as whitetailed deer and elk.
The commission said 28 new cases of CWD were identified from deer that hunters voluntary checked at 25 sampling stations in a 10-county CWD zone in north Arkansas on Nov. 12-13, the opening weekend of modern gun deer season.
Two deer killed in Marion County tested positive for CWD, and one deer tested positive from Yell County. The Yell County deer was the first documented case of CWD found south of the Arkansas River.
Searcy County was added to the CWD-positive list one week ago upon confirmation of the state's lone CWD-positive elk sample for 2016.
[IN DEPTH: Chronic wasting disease in Arkansas]
"The Marion County cases were right across the border from Boone County, which already had CWD-positive cases, but the Yell County one is a little disheartening," said Cory Gray, AGFC deer program coordinator. "It's our southernmost case yet and was found on the south side of the Arkansas River."
Positive CWD samples were also found in deer killed in Carroll, Newton, Pope and Searcy counties. Newton County had the highest number of positive results with 14.
Hunters voluntarily submitted 535 samples during the two-day period. That's about 10 percent of number of deer that hunters checked in the CWD Management Zone that weekend.
Biologists did not receive as many samples from hunters in the CWD Management Zone as they wanted. Gray said he believes hunters might not be overly concerned about the disease, as evidenced by strong hunting license sales and the number of deer checked in the CWD Management Zone.
"Many states with CWD have seen a drop in hunting license sales and deer harvest immediately following the detection of the disease, but we currently aren't seeing a decrease," Gray said. "Our hunting license sales are on the same trend as before CWD was detected, and the harvest has actually increased in many of the CWD-positive counties compared to the previous five years."
Sports on 11/22/2016