By Doug Leier
The state of North Dakota and wildlife managers nationwide take chronic wasting disease very seriously. The more education, information, awareness and understanding the better. It’s all hands-on deck.
Last fall, my part was looking for deer heads from roadkill to sample for CWD. Simply understanding the area deer populations and realizing the combination of deer and high-volume traffic would increase the odds of finding a roadkill deer to sample for testing.
It was a clash of emotions realizing every deer collision may have resulted in injury, possibly a totaled vehicle, insurance claims and time better spent than repairing or replacing a vehicle. But those deer heads provided valuable data for the Game and Fish Department surveillance efforts.
Friends, family and hunters became a part of the process by letting me know when and where they had found a roadkill in their travels. While not every report played out, in the end it made a difference.
2024 will provide a few adjustments in CWD surveillance as the chronic wasting disease proclamation for baiting and transportation requirements are set.
Noteworthy items include:
- Deer gun hunting unit 2B was removed from the list of units where baiting is restricted after the minimum sampling requirement was met with no positive detections.
- No new units have been added to the baiting restriction list for 2024-25.
- Hunters are prohibited from transporting into North Dakota the whole carcass or parts, except the lower-risk portions, of deer, elk, moose or other members of the cervid family harvested outside of North Dakota.
State Game and Fish Department officials will conduct surveillance of the state by region on a four-year rotation. This year, the CWD surveillance effort will consist of deer gun units in northeastern North Dakota. Outside of this area, hunters can still have their animal tested by taking it to a Game and Fish district office, any deer head collection site (primarily located in the surveillance area) or using a mail-in self-sampling kit.
A unit outside the annual surveillance zone is still eligible to have a baiting restriction removed if the sampling goal is met or can be added as a restricted unit if a positive is found.
If your deer hunting unit is under a chronic wasting disease hunting restriction and you want to know if the deer you’ve taken had CWD or you are concerned with the future of North Dakota’s deer herd, you should make plans to get your deer tested by the Game and Fish Department.
Self-sampling kits are available to hunters who wish to have their animal tested but are unable to drop the head off at a collection site. The kits allow hunters to remove the lymph nodes and ship them to the Department’s wildlife health lab in Bismarck for testing. A sampling kit request form can be found on the Department’s website, gf.nd.gov.
Hunters can drop off heads at any of the following locations prior to the deer gun season:
https://gf.nd.gov/wildlife/diseases/cwd/surveillance
- Bismarck – North Dakota Game and Fish Department Wildlife Health Lab; 3001 East Main Ave
- Devils Lake – North Dakota Game and Fish Department District Office; 7928 45th St NE
- Dickinson – North Dakota Game and Fish Department District Office; 225 30th Ave SW
- Grand Forks – Grand Forks County Sheriff; 5205 Gateway Dr
- Jamestown – North Dakota Game and Fish Department District Office; 3320 E Lakeside Road (Available only during office hours, 8am-5pm, Monday-Friday)
- Kenmare – Des Lacs National Wildlife Refuge; 42000 520th St NW
- Lonetree – North Dakota Game and Fish Department District Office; 1851 23rd Ave NE (Available only during office hours, 8am-5pm, Monday-Friday)
- Minot – State Fairgrounds; 2005 E Burdick Expy (map)
- Riverdale – North Dakota Game and Fish Department District Office; 406 Dakota Ave
- Williston – North Dakota Game and Fish Department District Office; 5303 Front St W
Also note, whole carcasses of animals harvested in North Dakota must remain in the deer unit or may be transported anywhere in the state, but carcass waste must be disposed of via landfill or waste management provider.
This does not apply to heads dropped at CWD collection sites or lymph nodes submitted for CWD surveillance. Taxidermists and game processors can also accept intact carcasses of animals harvested within North Dakota but assume responsibility for disposal.
The full details of CWD rules and regulations are available right here:
https://gf.nd.gov/gnf/regulations/docs/cwd/proc-cwd-2024.pdf
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