CWD (cont.)

ry: a 5-year, $4 million project to learn about the potential population impact of CWD on whitetails along the Buffalo River in Newton and Searcy counties. U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Wildlife Restoration Program funds will cover the cost, and researchers from the University of Georgia are leading the study.

CWD, which first appeared in Colorado in 1967, was initially detected in Arkansas’s deer and elk in Newton County in 2016.

he AGFC’s CWD management zone now includes 22 counties across the northwest and northern portions of the state, with Independence County being the furthest county east to have a positive test for CWD. A total of 1,081 deer and 32 elk have tested positive for deer in Arkansas since the first case in 2016.