Update: On Monday, December 17, 2018, the Kentucky Department of Fish and Wildlife Resources has expanded its ban against bringing any harvested deer, elk, or other cervid into the Bluegrass State unless the brain and spinal cord of the carcass have been removed. The regulation is done in an effort to protect the Kentucky wildlife population from chronic wasting disease. The ban now applies to cervids harvested from all US states and all foreign countries. Under the expanded ban, hunters must remove the brain and spinal cord from white-tailed deer, elk, and other members of the deer family harvested anywhere outside Kentucky before bringing them into the state. Chronic wasting disease has not been detected in Kentucky.

Original story: To further safeguard Kentucky’s deer and elk from chronic wasting disease, the Kentucky Department of Fish and Wildlife Resources announced new restrictions on Saturday, December 15, 2018 on the importation of deer from Tennessee. Effective immediately, hunters are prohibited from bringing any deer from Tennessee into Kentucky unless the brain and spinal column have been removed first. The move comes in response to a preliminary positive detection of chronic waster disease, an infectious neurological disease, in 10 white-tailed deer in Tennessee. The disease has not been detected in Kentucky.