Do You Register Deer Not Shot On Wma

State sending off blood and tissue samples to ensure animal no threat to local deer herd

An escaped exotic Asian antelope was shot on Richard M. Yancey Wild fauna Direction Area Thursday morn, and blood and tissue samples are being sent off to ensure the animal was not conveying any diseases potentially harmful to the state's deer herd.

Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries' deer study leader Johnathan Bordelon said workers spotted the female nilgai — the largest Asian antelope on the Indian subcontinent — on a levee in the key office of the WMA, and first thought it was an escaped cow elk.

"That would have been alarming enough because of the threat of Chronic Wasting Disease," Bordelon said. "Only this is not a member of the deer family. It'due south more than with hoof stock and sheep — they're a different genus, even though they all the same have hooves.

"But nosotros withal pulled notwithstanding samples that we would accept, and we're going to test it for CWD. We really don't consider it to be a threat for it, just at the same fourth dimension, we're going to test for it anyway."

No cases of CWD — a fatal brain infection found in about deer species — have been found in Louisiana. But the state is continually testing animals and taking proactive measures, including a possible ban on out-of-land deer carcasses currently being considered by the Louisiana Wildlife and Fisheries Committee.

Bordelon said the antelope Thursday did not have any tags or tattoos indicating potential ownership.

"This kind of stuff happens," he said. "There are exotics, and people can possess them legally, so information technology's not illegal to accept them. You just have to have them permitted.

"For this item animal, we don't know how far it roamed or where it escaped. You lot just don't necessarily want it roaming all over your public areas."

Typically, no one comes forwards to claim an animal in cases similar this, Bordelon said.

"They're worried about being liable or responsible for anything," he said. "Considering if it gets killed on the route, they don't know if they're going to make it trouble. And they don't desire any responsibility if it turns out to be positive for something bad."

Bordelon said tissue and blood samples from the nilgai were existence sent to the Southeastern Wildlife Cooperative Disease Study on the University of Georgia's campus in Athens for farther testing.

"We don't kill it and take pictures of it and become it mounted," Bordelon said. "Nosotros pull samples for testing and really burn up the animal out of precaution."

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