Game, Fish and Parks thanks all hunters who participated in the CWD surveillance program in 2020. Four new counties were determined to have CWD and are now considered endemic in South Dakota. These counties include Ziebach, Lyman, Mellette and Sully. This brings the total endemic counties to 16 in South Dakota.
In 2020, CWD testing results to hunters were sent in an e-mail that directed hunters to proceed to their hunter profiles to check testing results. If hunters did not receive an e-mail, they should confirm that the e-mail on their hunter profile is valid.
Future results for CWD testing programs will continue to utilize e-mails as the primary method of hunter notification.
Hunters that used some form of CWD self-sampling from harvested animals and sent samples directly to the SDSU Diagnostic Lab would have been contacted by the SDSU Diagnostic Lab with testing results through the e-mail provided on the hunter submission form.
CWD testing from 2020 surveillance has been finalized for all hunter submitted samples. If hunters did not receive results via an e-mail, they can assume that if a valid sample was delivered to SDGFP or to the SDSU Diagnostic lab, that the CWD results of testing are NOT DETECTED.
All hunters with a POSITIVE CWD result on a deer or elk have been notified. More information about CWD in South Dakota is available online.