Food Attractants Prohibited in CWD Management Zone Counties

JEFFERSON CITY, MO – The Missouri Department of Conservation is reminding residents not to place food attractants in counties where chronic wasting disease has been detected.

Chronic wasting disease, or CWD, is a disease that affects an animal’s nervous system and is found in deer, elk, reindeer, sika deer and moose. An infected animal may not shown signs of infections for over a year. The disease is fatal and no treatments or vaccines are available.

One of the ways the Missouri Department of Conservation is trying to slow the spread and frequency of the disease is by restricting feeding of wildlife in counties that have been infected with CWD. The Department has instituted a rule that grain, salt products, minerals and other consumable products used to attract deer are prohibited year-round with CWD Management Zone counties. Exclusions include feed placed within one hundred feet of a residence, or in a place that excludes access by deer. Feed and minerals used solely for normal agriculture or wildlife food-plot production practice is also excluded.

The conservation department encourages the use of bird seed in bird feeders that does not attract deer, such as safflower and nyjer.

CWD Management Zones include Mercer, Putnam, Sullivan and Linn counties.