Chronic Wasting Disease (CWD) is a fatal neurological disease that effects whitetail deer and other deer species.  This disease has been spreading through the deer populations for a several years, but has recently become an issue with deer population in neighboring states to Kentucky.  Though this disease has not been found in Kentucky, Kentucky Fish and Wildlife have been monitoring the deer populations for this disease through collecting samples from harvested deer or deer that were struck by vehicles on roadways.

Fulton County has a large deer population and numerous deer harvests each year, the number of samples from the county are extremely difficult to collect.  Fulton County does not have any meat processing facilities in the county.  This means that deer harvested in Fulton County are either processed by the hunter or taken to a process nearby.  Many of these processors work with Ky Fish and Wildlife on collecting samples, but many do not.

In the spring of 2020, the Fulton County Agriculture and Natural Resources Agent was contacted by one of the Biologists with Ky Fish & Wildlife to establish a CWD Collection Station in the county.  After several discussions and location ideas we contacted the Cayce Volunteer Fire Department to set up the collection site at their building and they agreed.

After the station was established the Fulton County Agriculture and Natural Resources Agent created a flyer with information about the station and distributed it to numerous local businesses, posted information on social media, and created an informational video about the station. The video reached approximately 300 people, with several likes and shares.  At this time the number of samples collect are not know, there have been several samples dropped off at the location.