URBAN DEER
It's no secret that some of Missouri's biggest bucks come from the suburbs of the state's large metropolitan areas. These bucks grow big because in many instances, hunting in these areas is either limited or prohibited.

Clarkson Valley, a small suburb in St. Louis County, is breaking barriers when it comes to deer management in an urban area. This township recently authorized bowhunting as a legal means to reduce excessively high deer numbers within their city limits. In 2005, archers tagged 81 deer in Clarkson Valley alone.

Overall, the St. Louis and Kansas City regions, the two smallest protection regions in the state, tallied a combined deer harvest of 52,686.

DEER DISEASE
Epizoötic Hemorrhagic Disease
Epizoötic hemorrhagic disease, commonly referred to as "EHD," has struck Missouri in major proportions in 2005. Hunters in some of the affected counties will definitely note a decrease in deer numbers in 2006 after this major outbreak.

EHD is caused by a virus transmitted by a midge fly from one deer to another. It is very deadly to deer, especially in the Midwest. Once a whitetail contracts the fatal disease, it usually dies within several days. EHD outbreaks occur more frequently during periods of drought like Missourians experienced in 2005.

"Small outbreaks of EHD occurred around and just to the north of Kansas City," Hansen said. "Counties hit the hardest were in the Osage and Gasconade counties region and those southwest from there."

The counties most affected by this latest outbreak of EHD were spread on a diagonal band from Osage County in central Missouri to Greene County in the southwest portion of the state.

"Although I don't believe this outbreak of EHD was as bad as it was in 1988 or 1998, it will have an impact on next year's deer season for some hunters," Hansen said. "I believe that in most instances, though, high mortality from EHD was experienced in restricted locales within these counties."

At press time, Hansen doesn't believe the deer death toll from EHD will affect management decisions in these areas, but also said that he couldn't say for sure.

Chronic Wasting Disease
The final round of testing for chronic wasting disease (CWD) found no signs of the deadly deer disease in Missouri. After some 22,000 tests completed in 2004, Missouri is still officially CWD free.

"This doesn't necessarily mean we don't have it, it just means we haven't found it yet," Hansen said. "CWD is still a concern of ours."

A case of CWD was recently reported in Kansas, Missouri's neighboring state to the west. Two other border states, Illinois and Nebraska, have also produced deer that tested positive for the disease.

"We're fortunate that these cases of CWD in our neighboring states were all found in the outer perimeters of these states, still a good distance from Missouri," Hansen said. "Hopefully, CWD will not be an issue we will have to deal with any time soon."