ND Game and Fish release CWD report

North Dakota Game and Fish officials are reporting both good news and bad on the chronic wasting disease front. Test results from the 2022 hunting season found 24 deer tested positive for CWD. Game and Fish officials say while they wish the number was zero it was two less than the tally identified in 2021.

Outreach Biologist Jim Job says while numbers may seem low – only a limited number tests were run in units were the department focused its surveillance efforts.  The estimated infection rates among mule deer were 4.9% in unit 3F2 and 9.8% in unit 3A1. Only 4.4% of hunters submitted heads for testing in units where the department focused its surveillance efforts.

CWD is a fatal disease of deer, moose and elk that remains on the landscape and can cause long-term population impacts as infection rates climb.