The Game Commission is aiming to do some deer disease monitoring with the help of hunters.
Bob Frye/Everybody Adventures
Any hunter who harvests a white-tailed deer in Pennsylvania is required to report it to the Game Commission.
But the agency wants more than that from some hunters this year.
It’s got its eyes deer disease.
The commission earlier this fall put 26 collection bins out in various places within the state’s disease management areas. They look like the familiar bins used for collecting donated clothes.
It’s hoping hunters will fill them with the heads of deer they’ve killed.
The commission’s plan is to collect them and have them checked for chronic wasting disease, or CWD.
The agency will benefit. The heads will tell it where the disease exists and whether it’s spreading on the landscape.
Hunters will benefit, too, though.
Those who drop off a head will be notified – likely within two weeks – whether their deer was sick.
“CWD is an increasing threat to Pennsylvania’s deer and elk, and our hunting tradition,” said Wayne Laroche, Game Commission special assistant for CWD response. “So far this year, the number of CWD-positive deer detected in DMA 2 has increased at a faster rate; the first free-ranging CWD-positive deer has been found within DMA 3; and three new deer farms have turned up positive within DMA 2.
“Still, prevalence of the disease in Pennsylvania is low,” Laroche said. “There’s still a chance to minimize the disease’s impacts on wild deer. And it’s a win-win scenario for the hunters who bring the heads of their harvested deer to a collection bin. Not only do they help protect wild deer against the disease’s spread, if they shoot a diseased animal, they’ll know about it and can discard the meat.”
The bins are secure, so hunters need not worry about someone stealing a tag, the commission said. They’re being checked every other day during deer season, too.
The exact locations of all collection sites is available on the commission’s web site. Look under “Quick Clicks” on the left side of the homepage.
The bins are white in color and clearly are marked for the collection of deer heads.
All heads deposited in collection bins should be placed in a plastic bag and tied shut. This will help ensure the tag remains with the head, which is important for test-notification purposes. The head can be bagged before being brought to the bin or hunters can use the bags provided at bins.
The skulls and antlers from heads submitted for testing will not be returned. Hunters who harvest antlered deer within a DMA may remove the antlers before depositing the head.
“It’s a great opportunity for hunters to be sure CWD is not detected in the deer they harvest,” Burhans said. “And by getting these free tests, hunters also are helping the Game Commission to take action that could prevent CWD’s spread, and preserve many more deer seasons, and many more healthy deer harvests to come.”
Deer disease elsewhere
Pennsylvania isn’t the only state dealing with chronic wasting disease, of course.
It continues to be a huge threat all across the country, one that’s gobbling up time and money.
Minnesota’s Department of Natural Resources – using $350,000 in emergency funds and $552,000 in lottery proceeds – plans to put GPS collars on 115 whitetails within a CWD management zone and then follow their movements to see where and how far they travel. That, researchers say, might reveal “pathways” for disease to spread.
In turn, that information will allow biologists to set management and surveillance boundaries and implement special control techniques.
According to a story in the Star Tribune, the study will begin with the capture of deer in January and continue two additional years beyond that.
Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks officials, meanwhile, will assuredly be spending more on the disease, too.
According to U.S. News and World Report, the disease has made its first appearance in that state.
A hunter-harvested mule deer shot 10 miles southeast of Bridger is suspected of having the disease. Testing on a sample from that animal continues, but early indications are it has the disease.
