Montana CWD Regulations

Fish, Wildlife & Parks has jurisdiction over licensing, reports, record keeping, exterior fencing, classification, unlawful capture, inspection, and enforcement of those activities. Department of Livestock has authority over marking, inspection, transport, importation, quarantine, hold orders, interior facilities, health, and enforcement of those activities. Contact: Wildlife - Jennifer Ramsey JRamsey@mt.gov; Captive - Phil Kilbreath pkilbreath@mt.gov

Certificate of veterinary innspection and prior import permit required. Must be importing to alternative livestock ranch licensed to receive that species; official ID tag; trace back capabilities; no red, axis, rusa, sambar, sika or roe deer imports; white-tailed deer must originate west of the 100th meridian and be certified free of meningeal worm parasites and dorsal spine larvae; elk must be free of red deer genes; cervidae must be TB and Brucellosis tested and certified Para TB free. Anthelmintic treatment required. Import fee charged to Montana importer. Not licensing new captive facilities; licensee may not charge a fee or remuneration for shooting of captive animals; no transfer of existing licenses allowed.

No wild or captive imports from geographic area where CWD is endemic or has been diagnosed. Cervid must originate from a herd that has participated in an approved CWD surveillance program for at least 60 months prior to import; no cervidae have been added to exporting herd within last 60 months from a herd of lesser CWD status; if exporting state has any confirmed CWD, must have completed an epidemiological investigation and identified all CWD affected, exposed, or trace herds.

The 2017 CWD Surveillance and Response Plan was approved and adopted by the Fish and Wildlife commission in April 2018. The plan is a three-part action-specific plan for CWD surveillance, a response upon detection of CWD, and a communication plan. Senate Bill 173 went into effect on January 1, 2018, prohibiting use of deer or elk urine to mask human odor if the urine originated in a state or province with documented occurances of CWD. CWD response plan has been revised based upon our experiences with CWD, and has been presented to our commission. Notable proposed changes include a move away from area specific transport restriction zones within the state to a carcass disposal rule, and also a proposal to prohibit or ban glandular scents.

Game Farm Regulation 32.4.1301, Sub-Chapter 13: Requires annual whole herd inspection, ID verification and inventory, must report all animal deaths within 1 working day of discovery and request inspection with CWD samples submitted for testing; test eligible age is 16 months and older; have tested approximately 5,400 animals.

Have done state wide sampling since 1998. From 2011-2016 surveillance was limited due to lack of funding. The first year of surveillance from the Surveillance and Response Plan was initiated in fall 2017. The plan calls for continued testing of symptomatic animals accross the state, plus a weighted surveillance strategy focused primarily on hunter harvested mule deer, and will rotate annually to priority surviellance areas. Check stations are set up in priority surveillance areas with staff present to collect and submit samples for testing. Adult road-killed animals are also collected for testing within surveillance areas. In addition, testing is provided free of charge for any hunter accross the state who harvested an animal outside our priority surveillance areas. Hunters can collect their own samples and send them in, or can go to any regional office to get assistance with sample collection.

No baiting allowed.

Feeding of game animals is prohibited. Legislation passed in 2009 providing for increased penalties for feeding of ungulates.

In February of 2006, the Montana FWP Commission passed a prohibition on the importation of heads and spinal cords from deer, elk, and moose harvested in states or provinces that have experienced CWD in their wildlife populations or in captive cervid populations in those states or provinces. Transport of processed meat, deboned meat, quarters, hides, antlers and/or skull caps without any nervous tissue attached, finished taxidermy heads, and ivories are not affected by the prohibition. The 65th Legislature passed Senate Bill 187 in April of 2017 which took the language from the Commission Rule and codified it into state statute. The satute took effect January 1, 2018. Upon detection of CWD in Montana, an initial resonse area (IRA) was designated around each detection. Special CWD hunts occurred within those IRA. Transport restriction zones were also designated around each IRA to prevent transportation of infectious materials to other parts of the state. Parts that were allowed out of the TRZ included: meat that is cut and wrapped or meat that has been separated from the bone, quarters or other portions of meat with no part of the spinal column or head attached,hides with no heads attached, skull plates or antlers with no meat or tissue attached, skulls that have been boiled and cleaned to remove flesh and tissue. We found the TRZ within the state to be confusing and difficult to enforce, and are currently proposing to move away from area specific transport restrictions within the state to a carcass disposal rule.

Yes, in January 2020, Montana Dept of Livestock announced a single CWD positive elk in a small captiver herd in eastern Montana. The herd was HCP compliant. Historically, one captive elk herd was diagnosed as CWD positive in 1998. That herd of eighty-seven elk was depopulated with 9 animals diagnosed as CWD positive. A trace forward herd consisting of 29 elk was also depopulated with no CWD positive animals detected.

Yes.