The North Dakota Game and Fish Department will continue its Hunter-Harvested Surveillance program during the 2022 hunting season by sampling deer for chronic wasting disease from select units in the western portion of the state, and unit 2B in the east.
Samples will be tested from deer taken from units 1, 2B, 3A1, 3A2, 3A3, 3A4, 3B1, 3B2, 3C, 3D1, 3D2, 3E1, 3E2, 3F1, 3F2, 4A, 4B, 4C, 4D, 4E and 4F.
CWD is a slow-moving brain disease of deer, moose and elk that can cause population-level impacts under high infection rates.
Hunters are encouraged to drop off heads of adult or yearling deer at collection locations. Fawns and head-shot deer cannot be tested. Hunters wishing to keep the heads can bring them to a Game and Fish district office during business hours to have them sampled.
Self-sampling kits are available for hunters who wish to have their deer tested but are unable to drop the head at a collection site. The do-it-yourself kit allows hunters to remove the lymph nodes and ship them to the Department’s wildlife health lab for testing.
Results can be expected within four weeks and will be sent to your Game and Fish My Account inbox.
Hunters should note whole carcasses or heads of deer taken from units 3A1, 3A2, 3B1, 3C, 3D1, 3E2, 3F2, 4B and 4C may not be transported to a collection site outside of the unit. Exceptions: lymph nodes extracted from the head for the purpose of CWD testing contained in a sealed, plastic bag; and hunters can transport whole deer carcasses between adjoining CWD carcass restricted units.
More information on CWD, including transportation restrictions, is available at the Game and Fish website.
