Hunting News

Chronic wasting disease (CWD) discovered in Quebec

Chronic wasting disease (CWD) discovered in Quebec

By New Hampshire Fish and Game Department

A red deer from a captive facility in the Laurentides region of Quebec has tested positive for chronic wasting disease (CWD). This is the Province’s first confirmed case of the disease.

Quebec is now legally classified as a CWD-positive jurisdiction and whole carcasses of cervids harvested in Quebec can no longer be transported into New Hampshire.

This finding represents the closest confirmed case of CWD to the New Hampshire border to date and poses a much greater threat to the state’s deer and moose populations than past cases of the disease elsewhere in North America.

New Hampshire hunters who make trips to CWD-positive jurisdictions are required to follow mandatory regulations on bringing home any cervid carcasses including deer, moose, elk, or caribou. Hunters may legally bring back only deboned meat, antlers, upper canine teeth, hides or capes with no part of the head attached, and finished taxidermy mounts. Antlers attached to skull caps or canine teeth must have all soft tissue removed.

To date, CWD has been detected in wild or captive cervids in 25 states and 3 Canadian provinces.

These include the states of Arkansas, Colorado, Iowa, Illinois, Kansas, Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, New Mexico, *New York, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, South Dakota, Texas, Utah, Virginia, West Virginia, Wisconsin, and Wyoming and the Canadian provinces of Alberta, Saskatchewan, and Quebec.

(*New York is no longer considered a CWD-Positive Jurisdiction by New Hampshire. However, New York-killed deer still may not be transported through Massachusetts or Vermont.)

The most current list of CWD positive jurisdictions can be found on the Fish and Game Department website.

A nationwide effort is underway to prevent further spread of the disease.

The effort includes collecting annual samples of deer tissue during ongoing monitoring and surveillance efforts, and restricting the transport and spread of potentially infected animals, carcasses, tissues, and bodily fluids.

During the fall deer hunting season, Fish and Game, with support from the U.S. Department of Agriculture Wildlife Services in Concord, collects heads and extracts samples from hunter-killed deer across the state for testing. As a result of these efforts, 6,260 deer have been tested in New Hampshire since testing began in 2002.
For more information about CWD and New Hampshire’s monitoring efforts, visit the New Hampshire Fish and Game Department website.

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