BATON ROUGE — The Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries (LDWF) heard a final round of public comments on a notice of intent that bans supplemental feeding and cervid carcass export from the Chronic Wasting Disease (CWD) control area, which includes Franklin, Madison and Tensas parishes. This action is part of LDWF’s CWD Management Plan.

LDWF instituted its CWD Management Plan in those three parishes in response to a CWD positive detection on Jan. 28 of an adult buck harvested in Tensas Parish. CWD is a disease that is always fatal to deer and can not currently be eradicated. Tensas Parish’s buck was the first deer with CWD recorded in the state, making Louisiana the 28th state to discover the disease, now occurring in 29 states.

The Louisiana Wildlife and Fisheries Commission (LWFC) approved the NOI during its April meeting and opened the NOI for public comment. The Notice of Intent reads:

• Baiting, placement of bait, or hunting over bait is prohibited within an LDWF designated CWD Control Area.
• The export of any cervid carcass or part of a cervid carcass originating within an LDWF designated CWD Control Area is prohibited, except for meat that is cut and wrapped; meat that has been boned out; quarters, or other portions of meat with no part of the spinal column or head attached, antlers, clean skull plates with antlers, cleaned skulls without tissue attached, capes, tanned hides, finished taxidermy mounts and cleaned cervid teeth.
• Approved parts transported out of the CWD Control Area must be legally possessed. Approved parts must contain a possession tag with the hunter’s name, address, LDWF license number, parish of harvest, date of harvest, and sex of deer. 
• Before the 2022-23 deer hunting season, LDWF is directed to…