NASHVILLE (AP) — A $1 million deer carcass incinerator is in the works at a Tennessee landfill to prevent the spread of chronic wasting disease.

The Tennessee Fish and Wildlife Commission said it approved the budget expansion for the project during its December meeting.

Fayette County will maintain and operate the incinerator at the local landfill.

Processors and hunters can use the incinerator to dispose of deer from high-risk counties and counties where animals have tested positive for the disease in southwest Tennessee.

The incinerator will reach temperatures necessary to kill the disease, which attacks the nervous system of white-tailed deer, mule deer, elk and moose, eventually killing them.

The incinerator will be operational by next hunting season, Hank Wright, commissioner of the agency's District 9, said.

The commission first detected the disease in December 2018 and has aimed to keep it from spreading, it said.

The disease spreads through animal-to-animal contact and indirectly through food and soil contaminated with bodily excretions.

There's currently no direct evidence that chronic wasting disease poses a threat to humans, the agency said. Federal health officials still suggest that people not consume meat from an animal that tests positive for the disease.