The state Department of Natural Resources is advising hunters in four southernIndiana counties to be on the lookout for ear-tagged deer and to shoot them if possible.

The DNR is asking hunters in Jackson County and the neighboring counties of Bartholomew, Jennings and Scott to be on alert for the deer. The deer were captive and escaped and may have been exposed to chronic wasting disease at a facility in another state before being moved to Indiana.

The DNR and the Indiana Board of Animal Health need to conduct disease testing on the deer.

Chronic wasting disease is a fatal neurological disease that causes deer o become emaciated, behave abnormally and eventually die.

Hunters who come across the ear-tagged deer are asked to report it to DNR law enforcement