John’s Butcher Shoppe in Festus joins the list of six places in Jefferson County where deer hunters can voluntarily have the deer they harvest tested for chronic wasting disease. With so many options hunters here have no reasonable reasons for not getting their game checked.
Testing is provided at no charge to the hunter, and results are available online at the state Department of Conservation website in about three weeks. The process involves removing lymph node tissue from the deer’s neck and head area and sending it for analysis.
The state website says, CWD is a neurological disease that is fatal to deer and an infected deer may show no symptoms. The only way to identify the disease is to have the deer tested. Although there have been no known cases of CWD affecting humans, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends against consuming meat from a deer that has tested positive.
In addition to John’s, partnership locations for testing in Jefferson County include Belmar’s Taxidermy at 7100 Valley Drive in Arnold, Bilbrey Studio at 7878 South Engle Creek Road in Barnhart, D and D Quality Deer Processing at 5471 South Byrnesville Road in House Springs, Robertson’s Taxidermy at 134 Gettysburg Court in Dittmer, and Larry’s Lifelike Taxidermy at 18 Beffa Street in Festus.
Locations just beyond the county lines are K and A Meats in Labadie, Nature and Wildlife Solutions in Gray Summit, and Oder’s Taxidermy in Desloge. Availability and hours vary at each business, so hunters should call before visiting the locations.
Another opportunity available for hunters is even easier if not as conveniently located. The department has 87 freezers around the state for hunters to leave their deer heads. In Jefferson County there is a freezer at the Festus-Crystal City Conservation Club ay 2567 US Highway 61.
In our surrounding counties freezers can be found in Sullivan, New Haven and Union, Farmington, Ste. Genevieve and Potosi. The self-serve stations have trash bags, zip ties and data sheets. Hunters should leave just the head and about six-inches of neck at the drop site.
The instructions from the department also indicates that antlers should be removed from bucks, but hunters who want to keep the antlers from their deer are better advised to go to one of the participating taxidermy shops.
Since its inception in Missouri, John’s Butcher Shoppe has been participating in the state’s Share the Harvest program, which provides ground venison to area food pantries through the approved meat processors. Any deer taken from areas where chronic wasting disease has been found must be tested before it can be donated to the program.
Voluntary CWD testing locations are not available during the mandatory testing days at the beginning of the November portion of the fall firearms season. Any deer harvested in one of the CWD zone counties during opening weekend must be submitted in person for testing on that Saturday or Sunday.
The three mandatory testing locations in Jefferson County are the same as they have been since the disease was first discovered in neighboring Franklin County in 2015. Hunters must bring their deer to the VFW in Cedar Hill, the state Department of Transportation facility on Hwy. 110 in De Soto, or to the parking lot across from Buchheit in Herculaneum.
Seventy-one counties across the state are included in CWD Management Zones and 43 of those counties have mandatory sampling stations. The locations are open from 7:30 a.m. to 8 p.m. on Nov. 16 and 17 this fall.
While most of the results of the annual sampling come from the opening weekend, most of the new positive tests last year were found outside of the management areas, which led to an expanded number of counties this year. Last season the department reported 14 cases found inside the management zones and 21 discovered in other areas statewide. That data proves the importance of getting deer tested whenever possible regardless of where it was harvested. Of the state’s 114 counties, Jefferson has the fifth highest total of CWD positive tests with 43. Ste. Genevieve has the highest number at 102.
John Winkelman has been writing about outdoors news and issues in Jefferson County for more than 30 years and was the Associate Editor for Outdoor Guide Magazine.
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