Deer and Elk Hunters Urged to Visit Check Stations to Help Monitor for CWD

SALEM – With deer season opening next weekend (Sept. 30), state wildlife officials today urged successful deer and elk hunters to visit check stations as part of the state’s effort to monitor for Chronic Wasting Disease (CWD).

ODFW staff and student volunteers from Oregon State University and Washington State University will obtain a sample from harvested animals at check stations around the state this fall (see dates and locations below).

CWD has not been detected in Oregon but it has occurred in free-ranging and or captive mule deer, white-tailed deer, elk and moose in other states including Colorado, Wyoming, Utah, Montana, New Mexico, Kansas, Nebraska, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Minnesota, Wisconsin, New York, West Virginia and Alberta and Saskatchewan in Canada. The neurological disease is untreatable and always fatal to deer and elk but no evidence suggests it can be transmitted to people.

Nevertheless, hunters should always take simple precautions to protect themselves from exposure to wildlife diseases. Hunters should not harvest animals that appear sick; wear rubber or latex gloves when field dressing an animal; trim all meat to remove fat and lymph gland tissue; and only consume meat that has been thoroughly cooked to at least 165 degrees.

Another concern and avenue for the introduction of CWD into the state is via hunter-harvested deer and elk from states or provinces that have CWD-infected animals. Precautionary measures taken to protect Oregon’s wildlife from CWD and keep the disease from entering Oregon include a ban on deer and elk carcass parts containing central nervous system tissue from animals killed in states or provinces with a documented case of CWD.

The following parts may still be imported: Meat cut and wrapped commercially or privately; meat that has been boned out; quarters or other portions of meat with no part of the spinal column or head attached; hides and/or capes with no head attached; skull plates with antlers attached that have been cleaned of all meat and brain tissue (velvet antlers are allowed); antlers with no tissue attached (velvet antlers are allowed); upper canine teeth (buglers, whistlers and ivories); and finished taxidermy heads.

A list of check stations and locations follows. Check stations will be open from dawn to dusk. For more information on CWD visit https://cwd-info.org/

Buck deer, Sept. 30-Oct. 2

• Prineville weigh station (just east of Prineville on Hwy 26)
• I-84 West at the Dead Man’s Pass rest station, Cabbage Hill (between Pendleton and La Grande)
• Brothers rest station Hwy. 20 (between Bend and Burns)
• La Pine – Junction of Hwys 97 and 31

Black-tailed deer, Oct. 21-22

Northwest Region:

• Eastside – Estacada, Jct. 224 and 211
• Westside – Jct. of Hwy 26 and Timber Road
• Westside – Jct. of Hwy 6 and S. Gale Creek Road
• Westside – Clatskanie, Safeway store parking lot at the Jct. of Hwy 30 and 47
• Tentative: Kansas City Rd and Bald Mountain

First bull elk season, Oct. 27-29