Three sites in northeastern Montana have been added to locations where hunters can drop off deer and elk heads to be tested for chronic wasting disease.

The Pro Co-Op in Opheim, West Side Sports in Malta and Hi-Line Sports in Plentywood will have barrels available for CWD collection. Hunters are asked to drop off heads of mule and white-tailed deer as well as elk in the barrels, fill out a form providing the hunter’s name, ALS number and a time and location specifying when and where the animal was harvested. It’s important that hunters give as detailed information as possible about the harvest area in case CWD is detected in their sample. It’s also important that the heads be removed from carcasses so that a sample can be removed from the brain stem.

Chronic wasting disease is an always fatal neurological disease that affects deer and elk. It has not been detected in Montana’s wild populations of deer and elk but because it is present in southern Saskatchewan, FWP is closely monitoring for it along the northern border.

Other collection sites in Region 6 include: FWP offices in Glasgow and Havre, Treasure Trail Meat Processing in Glasgow, the CMR field station at Sand Creek on Highway 191 south of the Fred Robinson Bridge, the Medicine Lake National Wildlife Refuge south of Medicine Lake and the Havre check station.

Call FWP’s Glasgow office at 228-3700 with any questions about CWD monitoring or details about information needed from donated heads.

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