In an auditorium at the Missouri Department of Conservation's (MDC's) Runge Nature Center, people hoping for answers wander in and take their seats. One of them, a clean-cut man with silver-grey hair, sports an olive green T-shirt with a deer on the back. The deer is behind a tall fence topped with barbed wire. Beneath the image are the words, "Hunters don't shoot livestock."
After the informative presentation given by Jason Sumners, resource scientist with the Deer Management and Research Program of the Missouri Department of Conservation, the floor was opened to questions, mostly from hunters concerned about wild deer populations and how to safely continue enjoying their favorite pastime.
The same conversations can be heard whether you're in a small-town diner or out in the field.
"In a nutshell, I have received more calls, texts and face to face questions regarding deer and CWD than any other topic over the last two months," said Callaway County Conservation Agent Steve Kistner in a later email conversation.
Kistner went on to say that the most common questions are those concerning new and pending regulations put into place because Callaway County is now included in the CWD management zone.
"The other issue is (that) the public has heard so much about the disease that it's common to think every dead deer they see died of CWD. This is not the case at all," Kistner wrote. "We have had one deer test positive in the region ... and right now we are simply trying to get as many samples as possible to find the prevalence of the disease."
The finding of the CWD-positive deer in Cole County has not come without its own set of rumors, specifically that it was killed outside of that county and brought in. The fear being whether or not local populations are already infected.
"I've interviewed the hunter multiple times myself," Sumners said addressing the question at the presentation. "We are certain the deer was killed in Cole County."
When an audience member persisted by asking what percentage of "certain," a uniformed agent with MDC stepped forward.
"We're 100 percent certain," he said.
That lone deer has been the driving factor for having regulation changes in the eight counties bordering Cole County as MDC tries to get ahead of the disease and mitigate the health of local deer populations.
And mitigation is the only possible option. Once CWD is in an environment, it cannot be eradicated.
Chronic Wasting Disease can be passed directly from deer to deer, but it can also be transferred to the environment via urine, saliva, or feces. CWD is not susceptible to cold, heat or chemicals. It remains in soil and in plants.
"It's always in the back of my mind," said Jim Hall, a deer hunter and landowner in Callaway County when asked if CWD is something he thinks about when going out to hunt.
"I also wonder how this is going to affect property values," he said. "I just bought land. Right now deer hunting is really good in Callaway County. But is land value going to drop because of chronic wasting disease?"
"In the beginning, around what we called "ground zero,' we had some landowners panic," said Sonja Legan of Tiger Country Realty in Macon. "They immediately wanted to sell their land."
When it comes to understanding how CWD can impact real estate sales, Legan should know a thing or two. Macon County was one of the first counties where the disease was found in a captive deer facility. When wild deer in the region began testing CWD-positive, MDC instigated its first containment zone encompassing six counties.
"We felt the land sold at a fair price at that time, and we were adamant that the buyers were informed about what was happening," Legan said. "Prices have remained stable."
"It was a concern at first," said Ron Davis of United County Farm and Home Real Estate, also in Macon. "Some buyers were knowledgeable about it (CWD), and they asked about the proximity to the place (the facility)."
But he said that only about ten percent of buyers were scared off, and land that did sell, sold at good prices.
Optimism over land prices aside, concern continues to plague Missouri deer hunters.
"Why isn't the department of conservation doing more?" asked one man in the Runge Center audience.
The Missouri Department of Conservation tried to get ahead of the game before CWD was ever found in Missouri. Testing of sick and hunted deer began fairly quickly after the disease was found in Wisconsin in 2001.
But MDC has faced its own share of blowback over the issue.
Most early cases of CWD found in varying regions are those found in captive facilities, so along with testing wild populations, MDC also monitored those businesses and recently attempted to add further regulations to ensure herd health. But in an effort to curb restrictions, captive facility owners turned to the legislature for protection hoping to have their deer populations transferred from the jurisdiction of conservation to that of agriculture.
This spring they lost that battle by a one-vote margin but won a second in September when Judge Robert Schollmeyer of the 20th Judicial Circuit Court of Missouri granted a preliminary injunction keeping MDC from enforcing new regulations on captive environments. Those regulations included:
• Banning the importation of live white-tailed deer, mule deer, and their hybrids from other states,
• Improving fencing requirements for new and expanding captive facilities,
• Requiring all deer six months or older that die in captive facilities to be tested for CWD, and
• Prohibiting new captive deer facilities within 25 miles of where CWD has been confirmed.
"The scientists for the department are educated on this subject, and they are trying to do something about it," Hall said. "But when it gets to Jeff City, the politicians only listen to the lobbyists. It's frustrating."
There are four facilities in Callaway County holding captive deer populations: Two are deer breeding facilities and two are shooting preserves. There have been no CWD-positive deer found in Callaway - wild or confined.
The Fulton Sun's attempts to reach the Missouri Deer Association for comments concerning this issue were unsuccessful.