Greene County joined a list of other counties for a wildlife count that is less than ideal.

The Iowa Department of Natural Resources confirmed there was one positive case of chronic wasting disease found in a deer carcass from a road-kill incident five miles south of Jefferson. Chronic wasting disease is a neurological disease that attacks the brain of an infected deer and causes that animal to lose weight, display abnormal behavior, lose body functions and die. This disease is 100-percent fatal to the infected deer. 

The infected deer in Greene County was part of 35 other positive cases across Iowa during the 2021-22 hunting season. Greene County joins 11 other counties that have had confirmed chronic wasting disease in deer. According to the DNR, samples were collected over the past ten months from willing hunters, taxidermists and deer that were killed along the road. The DNR will be scheduling meetings in Greene County to discuss chronic wasting disease and how hunters can help slow the spread. 

Greene County Engineer Wade Weiss told the County Board of Supervisors at their Monday meeting that the secondary roads department will be working with the DNR on this issue as well.