Deer hunters will see changed rules for chronic wasting disease management during the fall hunting season. There are additional mandatory testing requirements for several hunting units in Central Idaho near the U.S. 95/Highway 55 corridors south of Grangeville in response to a positive CWD case in the area in the area last fall.

At the March Fish and Game Commission meeting, commissioners changed the following: 

• Unit 18 was added to the CWD Management Zone, resulting in the CWD Management Zone being Units 14 and 18. Unit 15 was removed from the management zone because after extensive testing, but no positive animals have been found there. People hunting in CWD management zone must abide by special hunting rules, which can be seen on the CWD webpage. 
• There will be mandatory CWD testing for mule deer and white-tailed deer harvested in Units 23, 24, and 32A, but whole carcasses can be removed from those units. Mandatory testing will not apply to elk and moose taken in those units. 
• Removing the mandatory CWD testing requirements for mule deer, white-tailed deer, elk, and moose harvested in Unit 15 and for elk and moose harvested in Unit 14. Elk and moose are less susceptible to CWD than deer. However, Fish and Game will still accept voluntary samples from hunter-harvested elk and moose.

Why the changes

CWD was first detected in Idaho in the fall of 2021, and wildlife managers are adapting their strategies to slow the spread of the disease, which can infect deer, elk and moose and is fatal, incurable, and persists indefinitely in the environment. 

The expanded CWD testing requirements are in light of CWD being detected in mule deer in Units 18 and 23. Those deer are migratory, so managers want to increase testing in adjacent units to see if it is present in other units.

Through extensive testing, it’s been found that no moose have tested positive and only a single elk, so managers are less concerned about CWD affecting those animals, although they can still contract it. 

Why is CWD management important

CWD is most manageable and spreads much more slowly when only a fraction (less than 2 percent) of the herd is infected. When it exceeds 5 percent, other states have seen more animals contract the disease and also seen it spread geographically.  

Idaho Fish and Game intends to minimize the spread by reducing the deer density in the Slate Creek area and aggressively testing deer in adjacent units to gauge how much – or if – it’s spreading. This can’t be done without assistance from hunters. A small inconvenience of having a harvested deer tested will provide critical information about what’s happening with the disease. 

 Doing nothing is not an option

If ignored, CWD will infect new areas, cause more sick animals, and eventually result in fewer deer. Although elk and moose are less susceptible, CWD will also spread to them.