Mandatory testing for opening week of firearm deer hunting season

By Ashley Luthans

With firearm deer hunting season beginning on Saturday, Nov. 16, conservation officials are asking for help in tracking chronic wasting disease in the state.

In Missouri, mandatory sample testing is required for all deer this Saturday and Sunday. Hunters must bring their deer, or the head with six inches of the neck attached, to a conservation checkpoint within the county on the day it was killed.

Erin Woodiel, a media specialist with the Missouri Department of Conservation, explained the purpose of testing for CWD.

“It spreads from deer to deer through contact,” Woodiel said. “So the reason we have CWD testing is to try to keep track of and slow the spread of CWD among deer populations across the state of Missouri.”

Chronic Wasting Disease is a neurological disorder found in deer and deer-related mammals that shuts down parts of the brain and is eventually fatal. There have been no reported cases of CWD in humans.

In order to test for the disease, lymph nodes are taken from the neck.

CWD testing is free for hunters and the goal is to prevent the disease from spreading.

Woodiel said hunters can receive results of testing within two to four weeks.

Sampling stations will be open from 7:30 a.m. to 8 p.m.

In Buchanan county, testing is not mandatory. Visit the Missouri Department of Conservation’s website to see what counties have mandatory testing.