Nashville, TN — Chronic wasting disease (CWD) has not been found in Montgomery County, but it has now turned up close to home — and a public meeting in Dickson County next week is aimed squarely at the hunters and landowners who need to understand what that means.
The Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency (TWRA) and the University of Tennessee Extension will host an informational meeting on Tuesday, September 8th, from 7:00pm to 8:30pm.
Wildlife managers and a wildlife veterinarian will explain the disease, current management practices, surveillance, and hunter incentive programs, then take questions from those attending.
Where: Dickson County Government Building (Meeting Room A)
303 Henslee Drive,
Dickson, TN
When: Tuesday, September 8th, 2026, 7:00pm to 8:30pm
Why It Matters in Montgomery County
Dickson County, which borders Montgomery County to the south, recorded its first CWD-positive deer in December 2025, and nearby Humphreys County is also now positive. Early sampling has kept Dickson’s infection rate below 2 percent so far — low, but enough to bring the county under the state’s CWD rules and testing push. Clarksville-area hunters also range well beyond the county line — south toward Dickson and west to Land Between the Lakes, the peninsula between the Tennessee and Cumberland rivers, and beyond into West Tennessee — and a deer taken in an affected area, along with the rules that govern moving its carcass, can bring CWD concerns straight back home. That puts the Dickson County meeting well within reach, and squarely on point, for Montgomery County sportsmen.
What is CWD
CWD is a progressive, always-fatal disease that attacks the nervous system of deer and other members of the deer family, including white-tailed deer, mule deer, elk, moose, and caribou. It belongs to a group of prion diseases known as transmissible spongiform encephalopathies (TSEs) — the same family as scrapie in sheep and mad cow disease in cattle. As prions gradually damage the brain, infected animals grow weak and emaciated, behave abnormally, lose bodily functions, and eventually die.
Early on, an infected deer may show no visible signs while still shedding the disease. Those animals also face greater risk from other causes of death, including predation, harsh weather, vehicle collisions, and hunter harvest. CWD spreads through saliva, blood, urine, and feces, both directly between animals and indirectly through contaminated soil, food, and carcasses. The prion is remarkably durable and can remain infectious in the environment for well over a decade.
Recognizing a Sick Deer
Part of what TWRA asks of hunters and landowners is simply to keep an eye out, because local reports are often how a new case first surfaces. A deer in the later stages of CWD tends to show a cluster of signs: drastic weight loss and a ribby, run-down look; stumbling, tremors, or a loss of coordination; a drooping head and ears; excessive drooling or thirst; and an unusual lack of fear of people. The catch is that an infected deer can look and act perfectly healthy for a year or more while still shedding the disease, so a normal-looking animal is no guarantee — which is exactly why testing matters.
None of those signs is proof of CWD on its own. Other illnesses and injuries can produce the same look, and only a laboratory test of the right tissue can confirm the disease, so the guidance is not to diagnose it yourself but to report it. Anyone who spots a deer that appears sick or is behaving abnormally should avoid shooting, handling, or eating it and contact TWRA through its Report a Sick Deer page or a regional office. Those sightings are a big part of how the state watches ground where CWD hasn’t yet turned up — including in Montgomery County.
Spread Across Tennessee
Tennessee’s first CWD cases turned up in West Tennessee in 2018, in Fayette and Hardeman counties. For the next five years every positive sat west of the Tennessee River, and biologists hoped the river might slow the disease’s advance. That changed in 2023, when Hardin and Lewis counties produced the first detections east of the river. By 2025, CWD had reached Dickson, Humphreys, Wayne, and Williamson counties as well.
The disease has now been confirmed in wild white-tailed deer in 23 Tennessee counties: Carroll, Chester, Crockett, Decatur, Dickson, Dyer, Fayette, Gibson, Hardeman, Hardin, Haywood, Henderson, Henry, Humphreys, Lauderdale, Lewis, Madison, McNairy, Shelby, Tipton, Wayne, Weakley, and Williamson. Montgomery County is not among them — but Dickson County, on its southern border, is.
What It Means for Local Hunters
Two practical points stand out for hunters based in Montgomery County. The first is testing. TWRA leans on hunters for the samples that drive its surveillance, and the agency covers the laboratory fee for deer taken in CWD-affected counties. Hunters can drop deer heads at self-service freezer stations or submit samples through participating processors and taxidermists; current freezer locations are posted at CWDinTN.org.
The second is carcass transport. Hunters who bring a deer out of West Tennessee’s CWD Management Zone may move only approved parts — deboned meat, clean skulls and skull plates, antlers, hides, and finished taxidermy. Crossing the state line adds another rule: Kentucky prohibits bringing a whole deer carcass across its border, requiring the brain and spinal column to be removed first — which catches hunters at Land Between the Lakes, the Stewart County ground that straddles the Kentucky line, along with anyone hauling a deer home from western Kentucky.
Closer to home, TWRA has not added carcass-export restrictions in Dickson, since it sits outside the Management Zone. But baiting and wildlife feeding — putting out grain, salt, or minerals for deer — are now prohibited in any CWD-positive county, Dickson included, and the agency urges hunters there to have their deer tested.
Those detections also open the state’s incentive programs to local hunters who take deer in affected counties. Under the Earn-a-Buck Program, a hunter who harvests an antlerless deer in a CWD-positive county and submits it for testing can earn an additional antlered deer, regardless of the result. The Replacement Buck Program lets a hunter whose buck tests positive count the next antlered deer harvested as a replacement, with no cap on the number. And the Fight CWD Incentive Program provides a $75 voucher toward processing fees to any hunter whose deer tests positive.
A Note on Human Health
There is no evidence that CWD naturally infects humans. As a precaution, TWRA follows guidance from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention: don’t shoot, handle, or eat any animal that appears sick; wear gloves when field-dressing; have deer taken in CWD areas tested; and don’t eat meat from an animal that tests positive.
TWRA describes CWD management as a shared effort among the agency, its partner organizations, landowners, and hunters, and frames the Dickson County meeting as a chance to work through how to manage the disease together — and, in the agency’s words, “to keep hunters hunting.”
The Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency is responsible for protecting, managing, and conserving the state’s fish and wildlife for residents and visitors, and for maintaining public safety through law enforcement and safety education on Tennessee’s waterways.