For years, Missouri hunters have lived with a quiet tension over how the state handles chronic wasting disease in the deer herd. On December 15, the Missouri Department of Conservation made it official: they are stopping the targeted removal program that used sharpshooters to take out deer in spots where CWD showed up strong.
The program relied on baiting deer after hunting season ended and then using spotlights to locate and shoot them. A lot of hunters never liked the idea. They felt it was unfair that the state could bait deer when regular hunters were not allowed to do the same thing. Others simply did not want more deer killed on land near where they hunt.
In an open letter, MDC Director Jason Sumners explained the decision. “As CWD has spread in Missouri over the last decade, MDC’s objective has been and continues to be to keep CWD infection rates low to protect the long-term health of the deer herd. This extensive undertaking can only be accomplished by working collaboratively with hunters and landowners,” he wrote. “At this time, MDC will be pausing our post-season targeted removal efforts to work with hunters and landowners to adapt and identify a more sustainable path forward.”
The disease itself is no small matter. Chronic wasting disease is caused by prions—abnormal proteins that damage the brain. It affects deer, elk, moose, and reindeer. Once an animal gets it, the outcome is always the same: the disease is fatal. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention describes it as a serious threat to these animals, and it continues to spread across North America.
Missouri had taken an aggressive stance against the disease. The targeted culling was designed to knock down infection rates in specific hotspots right after hunting season. Kip Adams, the Chief Conservation Officer for the National Deer Association, believes the program worked well.
“Missouri has been a leader in keeping CWD prevalence on the landscape low because they’ve been so aggressive at removing additional CWD-positive deer from known hotspots,” he told MeatEater. “The single best-known way to make that happen is strategic sharpshooting cull programs…It’s unfortunate that now they have lost that ability.”
Adams recently attended a public meeting the MDC held to hear from local hunters. He heard the complaints firsthand. Many sportsmen objected to the state using bait when hunters could not. Plenty more worried that taking extra deer would leave fewer bucks and does for the regular seasons.
“I get it. Nobody wants additional deer to be removed if it’s in their backyard,” Adams said. Still, he points out that the science backs up focused culling. When other states and Canadian provinces dropped similar programs, infection rates shot up quickly. He expects the same pattern could play out in Missouri now.
The department is turning toward a different approach called the Hunter Harvest Initiative. It asks hunters to take more deer inside designated CWD core zones during the regular seasons. The hope is that sportsmen will step up and help control the disease themselves. Adams supports getting hunters involved, but he stresses that voluntary harvests should add to—not replace—more precise removal efforts.
One of the bigger problems, according to Adams, is the growing number of voices online who downplay the danger of CWD. Some claim the disease never hurts entire deer populations. Recent research tells a different story. Studies now show clear evidence that CWD can drive down whitetail numbers in heavily affected areas.
“The detractors often say there’s never been a population that’s been reduced by CWD. That’s just not true. We have more evidence of CWD causing population declines in whitetails than ever before,” Adams said.
He worries the Missouri decision could ripple outward. Hunters in other states who dislike agency culling might point to this change as proof the practice does not work. Even those on the fence could decide targeted removals are not worth the trouble if a leading state like Missouri walks away from them.
“This is going to have ramifications far outside of The Show-Me State,” Adams warned.
For the average hunter who spends fall weekends in a treestand or ground blind, the news brings mixed feelings. Nobody enjoys seeing deer taken outside of fair-chase hunting seasons. At the same time, most sportsmen want healthy herds that produce good bucks for years to come. The fear is that without strong action in hot zones, the disease could gain ground and eventually thin out the deer many have worked hard to manage on their leases and farms.
Missouri officials say they remain committed to keeping infection rates low. They plan to keep working with hunters and landowners to find new ways forward. Whether the new hunter-led efforts can hold the line against CWD the way targeted culling did remains an open question.
One thing is clear: the fight against chronic wasting disease is far from over. The choices made today will shape deer hunting in Missouri—and possibly across the country—for generations of sportsmen to come.
