The Division of Wildlife Resources is asking for the public’s cooperation with hunters playing an important role in the surveillance of Chronic Wasting Disease. Hunters that are successful are encouraged to stop at a check station where staff will take lymph nodes from the deer and ask a few questions including where the deer was harvested. The entire process takes just a few minutes but it helps monitor the disease and allows for further study of Chronic Wasting Disease impacts on the state deer population. In northeastern Utah, the DWR will provide free CWD tests for deer harvested from the North Slope; South Slope, Yellowstone; South Slope, Vernal; South Slope, Diamond Mt; Book Cliffs, North; and Nine Mile, Anthro units. Testing spots from October 23rd through the 25th are located near Strawberry Reservoir at the junction of U.S. Highway 40 and the Co-op Creek Road, just north of Vernal on U.S. Highway 191 at the Steinaker Reservoir rest stop, and west of Manila on SR 43 (between mile marker 4 and 3). The local testing location from October 25th through the 29th is the DWR Vernal office. Hunters can also call the DWR Vernal office at 435-781-9453 for a list of taxidermists and meat processors in the area that will also take CWD samples. “We take the presence of CWD in Utah seriously and will continue to do extensive monitoring to stay on top of the disease and its prevalence in the state,” shares DWR State Wildlife Veterinarian Ginger Stout. “We ask that hunters stop at our check stations if they have harvested a deer, within the sampling units, in order to help us with our monitoring of CWD in Utah.”
