Timely Topics
Chronic wasting disease (CWD) is a fatal neurological disease of deer, elk, and moose.
The disease is caused by an abnormal infectious protein called a prion. Prions are transmitted to uninfected deer dir ectly through saliva, feces and urine shed by infected deer and indirectly as a result of soil contaminated with prions.
The potential impacts of CWD to the white-tailed deer populations of Virginia are a serious concern, though the disease has not been shown to pose a health risk to humans or domestic animals at this point.
The Virginia’s Department of Wildlife Resources (DWR) leads Virginia’s CWD surveillance and management efforts and relies on assistance from hunters, taxidermists, processors, other agencies, and diverse constituent groups to implement surveillance and management strategies. One important management strategy is to prevent artificially concentrating deer at point sources like feeding sites. As such, it is illegal to feed deer in Virginia for any reason year-round in all counties within 25 miles of a known CWD-positive deer.
Regionally, CWD was first detected in West Virginia in 2005, Virginia in 2009, Maryland in 2010, and Pennsylvania in 2012. In Virginia, CWD has been confirmed in Carroll, Clarke, Culpeper, Fairfax, Fauquier, Floyd, Frederick, Loudoun, Madison, Montgomery, Prince William, Pulaski, Rappahannock, Roanoke, Shenandoah, Tazewell, and Warren counties.
Rockingham County has recently been designated as a “Disease Management Area (DMA) as a result of positive CWD detections in West Virginia within 10 miles of the border. A summary of the DWR’s 20242025 deer hunting season CWD surveillance in the Disease Management Areas (DMAs) can be found at it website https://dwr.virginia. gov/ where you click on “Wildlife and Habitat” and then “Diseases of Virginia’s Wildlife.”
Feeding deer is not illegal in some Virginia counties but is strongly discouraged. Hunting over bait is illegal in Virginia, and feeding deer for any reason is illegal statewide from Sept. 1 to the first Saturday in January. Feed or bait can include corn, mineral or salt licks, pelleted feed, bird seed, apples or other fruit, and similar substances placed by people for the purposes of feeding or attracting wildlife. If deer are eating from your bird feeder, you are feeding deer and you need to reposition to bird feeder to exclude deer.
Feeding deer outside of September – December is still legal in Rockbridge but feeding deer at any time is now illegal in Botetourt and Augusta counties. The feeding ban does not apply to wildlife plantings like food plots, normal agricultural operations (e.g., crop plantings or feeding livestock), or wildlife management activities conducted or authorized by DWR.
For hunters in Rockbridge or other counties outside of the designated Disease Management Areas (DMAs) who want deer tested, there are freezers located at the Charles City, Farmville, Forest, and Verona regional offices for voluntary dropoff. Testing through these freezer locations is available at no charge. The hunter must bring the deer head and 3-4 inches of neck in a bag to place in the freezer. Deer harvested from within DMAs cannot be transported to these freezers for testing.
Most of the content of this column was pulled directly from the Virginia Department of Wildlife Resources webpage where people can access information on a wide range of wildlife information specific to Virginia.
