How Wyoming Hunters Can Help Track Deer Health This Year

Chronic Wasting Disease (CWD) has been a focal point for Wyoming Game and Fish biologists for many years, and 2024 will be no different.

CWD is a 100% fatal disease that affects the deer family, Mule Deer, Whitetail Deer, Elk, and even Moose in Wyoming.

According to the WGFD Information Specialist Janet Milek, monitoring and surveillance every year.

We have areas that we call focus areas, which are areas in which we are trying to get a minimum of 200 samples. Then we have mandatory areas, which are areas that are a little bit more difficult for us to get samples of. So, we try to help people get us the samples. Again, this is to help us to determine the health of the herd, what is the degree that the CWD is really inside this herd, and whether we need to be taking any management actions.

If you're hunting in one of the monitored areas, you will want to know how to pull the sample that can be sent to WGFD for testing. As always, you can get help from WGFD by stopping at one of the regional offices, a check station, or by pulling the sample yourself.

Before the start of hunting seasons, the WGFD offers classes at its regional office to help hunters learn best practices. Over the summer, they have been freezing deer carcasses to use in the class. That means not only will you know about the disease, but you'll also have hands-on experience in identifying the proper tissue that needs to be submitted..

If you missed the classes this year, you can stop by the regional office to get help, or you can check out these videos provided by WGFD.

If you're curious about how the testing works, here's another video that shows you every step taken.