Tippah County remains entirely within Mississippi’s chronic wasting disease management zone for the 2026–27 hunting season, keeping restrictions on deer feeding and the movement of harvested animals in place for local hunters.
The Mississippi Department of Wildlife, Fisheries, and Parks outlined the season’s zones in an announcement reported Sept. 10 by WJTV. The North Mississippi zone includes all of Tippah and neighboring Alcorn, Benton, Prentiss and Union counties. WJTV’s Sept. 10 report.
Under the department’s published rules, supplemental feeding is prohibited throughout CWD management zones, including feeders, salt licks and mineral licks. Whole deer carcasses cannot be taken outside a zone.
Hunters may take harvested deer directly to a processor or taxidermist within the zone. Products allowed to leave include deboned meat and bone-in quarters without the head or spinal column attached, along with properly cleaned antlers, skulls and other permitted products.
A specific exception allows a deer head to go to an out-of-zone taxidermist participating in the CWD collection program. Hunters must obtain a sample number from that taxidermist before transport, carry it with the head and deliver the head within five days of receiving the number.
The agency’s rules explain that moving infected carcasses can carry the disease into other areas, while feeding sites concentrate deer. Hunters planning a trip to a processor or taxidermist can review the complete boundaries, transport requirements and exceptions on the department’s CWD management page. MDWFP’s CWD management zones and rules.
Featured image: File photo from the Tippah News media library; not a photograph of a deer diagnosed with CWD.
Jon Ross Myers is the executive editor and publisher of the Mississippi News Network, Mississippi's largest digital only media company. He can be reached at editor@tippahnews.com
