PRENTISS COUNTY, Miss. (WJTV) – Officials with the Mississippi Department of Wildlife, Fisheries, and Parks (MDWFP) announced the agency recently received a Chronic Wasting Disease (CWD) positive test.

According to MDWFP, a hunter-harvested buck tested positive for CWD during the 2025 Velvet Season from Prentiss County. This is the first detection of CWD in Prentiss County.

CWD, also known online as zombie deer disease, is a prion disease that is easily transmissible to deer. According to MDWFP, symptoms can include drastic weight loss (wasting), stumbling, listlessness, and other neurologic symptoms in deer. One challenge of detecting the disease is until deer enter the last stages of CWD, they often appear completely healthy.

Although it is a new positive case for the county, Prentiss County was already included in the North Mississippi CWD Management Zone. As a result, officials said this detection does not require any changes to existing CWD management zones or regulations.

Since February 2018, 447 CWD-positive white-tailed deer have been detected across 18 Mississippi counties.

MDWFP encourages all hunters to submit deer for testing. Hunters can submit deer for testing at established freezer locations or participating taxidermists.