FWP: Hunters are essential to managing CWD
Hunters play an important part in helping Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks learn where chronic wasting disease (CWD) is and how it spreads. When hunters have their harvested deer, elk and moose tested for CWD, they provide key insights into the effectiveness of CWD management, the disease’s prevalence and its presence.
Each year, FWP establishes priority sampling areas where we are particularly interested in sampling animals. FWP needs samples not only from hunting districts (HDs) where CWD is known to be, but also in HDs where it hasn’t yet been detected. If we don’t know where it is, we can’t stop the spread.
“The more we know about the prevalence of the disease and how it spreads, the more we can do to protect our herds and protect the future of hunting,” said FWP Wildlife Division Administrator Ken McDonald. “We need the help of hunters to gain this information. Testing also enables hunters to understand and make decisions about eating the meat of animals they have harvested.”
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