(Valley News Live) — The North Dakota Game and Fish Department will continue its hunter-harvested surveillance program this hunting season, sampling deer for chronic wasting disease from select units in the southwestern part of the state.
CWD is a slow-moving brain disease affecting deer, moose and elk that can cause population-level impacts under high infection rates, according to the department.
Samples will be tested from deer taken in units 2J1, 3B3, 3C, 3D1, 3D2, 3E1, 3E2, 3F1, 3F2, 4D, 4E and 4F. Hunters outside that area can still have their deer tested by taking it to a Game and Fish district office, a deer head collection site, or by using a self-sampling kit.
Hunters are encouraged to drop off harvested deer heads at collection locations listed on the department’s website. Fawns and head-shot deer cannot be tested. Hunters who want to keep the heads can bring them to a Game and Fish district office during business hours to have them sampled there.
Self-sampling kits are available by request on the department’s website or at district offices for hunters who can’t drop off a head at a collection site. The kits allow hunters to remove lymph nodes themselves and ship them to the department’s wildlife health lab for testing. Results are expected within four weeks and will be sent to the hunter’s Game and Fish My Account inbox.
The department also reminded hunters that carcass disposal requirements apply statewide. A full carcass can be transported outside the unit where it was harvested, but carcass waste left after processing must be disposed of through a landfill or waste management provider. That requirement doesn’t apply to heads dropped at CWD collection sites or lymph nodes submitted for testing.
Submitting deer jaws
The department is also asking hunters to help collect lower jaws from harvested deer this season. Biologists use tooth replacement and wear patterns to determine a deer’s age, which helps the department track the age structure of deer populations in each hunting unit and guide future management.
Hunters interested in having their deer aged can request an envelope with instructions through the Game and Fish website.
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