Once a week on Sundays beginning November 17, Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks will collect samples from hunter-harvested deer and elk in Sidney and submit them for Chronic Wasting Disease testing.
A CWD technician will take samples in a bay at the Sidney Volunteer Fire Department, across the street from the Richland County Law & Justice Center, from 10 a.m.-2 p.m. each Sunday through the close of general big game season on December 1. There is no cost for this service. Hunters can bring the whole carcass or the animal’s head and four inches of neck tissue to the fire bay during these hours. A technician will collect the retropharyngeal lymph nodes from the throat area and gather information including harvest location from the hunter so FWP can follow up if an animal tests positive. Test results will be available online at fwp.mt.gov/cwd in about three weeks. FWP will contact hunters directly in the event of a positive result.
Although no cases of CWD have transferred from wildlife to humans, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends not eating the meat of an infected animal.
FWP Region 7 is focusing sampling efforts on a Priority Sampling Area in the southern portions of Hunting Districts 702, 704 and 705 this year. However, FWP will take samples from anywhere in the region, and the Sidney area is of interest because in late October a deer tested positive for CWD in McKenzie County, N.D., which is just over the border from Sidney.
Another option for having your animal tested is to collect the sample yourself and submit it to the FWP lab (instructions at fwp.mt.gov/cwd). Hunters must cover shipping costs, but FWP will pay for testing on animals harvested anywhere in Montana. You can also bring your animal to the FWP regional office in Miles City Monday through Friday during business hours. If you are hunting in the Ashland, Hysham or Ekalaka area, CWD check stations operate on Saturday and Sunday from 10 a.m. to sunset, and on Monday from 8 a.m. to noon.
Carcass dumping is illegal, unsightly
FWP received a report this week of a mule deer doe being harvested and then dumped and left to waste in a ditch in the Sidney area.
If you have any information on this incident, please call Warden Ryan Kasson at 853-7272 or call 1-800-TIP-MONT.
FWP reminds hunters not to dump carcasses or parts near roadways and other areas where they do not have permission. It is unsightly and illegal, and if the animal has CWD, the carcass can transmit the disease for at least two years.
Hunters are strongly encouraged to dispose of hides, bones and trimmings at approved landfills in the area they hunt or to leave the spinal column at the kill site (with landowner permission if on private land.) If they bring the whole head to a check station or FWP regional office for sampling, FWP will dispose of the head.
For more information on CWD, visit the FWP website at fwp.mt.gov/cwd.
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