Additional deer hunting restrictions by the Missouri Department of Conservation will soon be carried out as deer populations continue to decline in the U.S.

Wildlife officials said this population decline was caused by an unprecedented outbreak of a deer hemorrhagic disease and lax hunting regulations.

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The Missouri Department of Conservation recorded 251,924 hunted deer last year. Officials are now taking the necessary steps to limit deer hunting in specific counties.

The limitation only allows one deer per hunter during firearms season as opposed to the unlimited hunt number. Missouri will also declare importation of captive deer illegal.

This captive deer importation regulation was met with great criticism from the state's captive deer hunter community that will challenge this new rule in court. This ruling will take effect January 30, 2015.

The restrictions will help rebuild the deer population. It normally takes seven years for a herd to recover, said Jason Sumners, a deer biologist from the conservation department.

Another U.S. state with dwindling deer populations is Kansas but Missouri's got bigger problems compared to other states.

The last three years of severe drought coupled with this hemorrhagic disease epidemic have hit hard the declining numbers of deer in Kansas, said Lloyd Foxx from the Kansas Department of Wildlife, Parks and Tourism.

To resolve and save the deer populations, Kansas limited the number of hunting days during peak season. Other regions and counties have reduced their hunting days to less than eight days.

Missouri's deer population was thriving during the early 2000s, leading the wildlife center to remove strict regulation limits from anterless deer.

Unfortunately, the 2012 outbreak of hemorrhagic disease among the deer population wasn't contained and reduced the deer population by 20 percent.

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