INDIANA, USA — The Indiana DNR is looking for hunters to help with chronic wasting disease (CWD) surveillance efforts during the 2020-21 deer hunting season.
DNR is asking hunters to operate sample stations to collect lymph nodes from deer harvested within the CWD surveillance area.
CWD is a neurologic disease that affects white-tailed deer. The fatal disease is transmitted directly through bodily fluids such as feces, saliva, blood, or urine, or indirectly through environmental contamination of soil, plants, or water. CWD is found in free-ranging white-tailed deer in several Midwestern states close to Indiana, including Michigan, Illinois, and Wisconsin. To date, CWD has not been detected in deer tested from Indiana.
DNR biologists are operating these sampling stations during the weekends of Nov. 14-15, and 21-22.
The surveillance area includes Jasper, Lake, LaPorte, Newton, Porter, Pulaski, and Starke counties in northwest Indiana, and Dekalb, LaGrange, Noble, and Steuben counties in northeast Indiana.
Sampling stations will be located at DNR fish & wildlife areas (FWAs), state fish hatcheries (SFHs), and cooperating businesses in the 11-county surveillance area. The locations of these sampling stations can be found at on.IN.gov/cwd.
Contact information for participating properties is at on.IN.gov/cwd. No fee will be charged for voluntarily submitting harvested deer for CWD testing at these locations.
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