DES MOINES – Iowa DNR wildlife biologists will continue collecting deer tissue samples through the opening weekend of the second shotgun season looking for the presence of chronic wasting disease. The DNR collected more than 700 samples from the first shotgun season.
The DNR has check stations at, the Allamakee County Fairgrounds on the north edge of Waukon; the Yellow River State Forest headquarters, 4 miles southwest of Harpers Ferry; the Clayton County Conservation Center at Osborne on Hwy. 13; Guttenberg Municipal Boat Landing on the south edge of town on River Park Dr.; the Iowa DOT maintenance garage, 1 mile north of Dyersville; Swiss Valley County Park, 3 miles southwest of Dubuque; the Iowa DOT maintenance garage on the edge of Maquoketa; and the Green Island Wildlife Management Area headquarters, 8 miles southeast of Bellevue. The check stations will be open from 12 p.m. to 7 p.m.
The DNR will also be in the field searching out hunters to collect the tissue samples. Northeast Iowa hunters also have the option of calling their local wildlife biologist in the four target counties to arrange a time for the DNR to pick up the sample. The biologists will be working with conservation officers to identify hunters and collect samples. Hunter participation is completely voluntary.
Hunters outside the four northeast Iowa counties should check with their local wildlife biologist for specific information on sample collections in their area. Phone numbers for the biologists are in the 2002 Hunting, Fishing and Trapping Regulations.
Hunters will be asked their name, address, phone number and where they harvested the deer. The hunters will receive the test results when they are available. Results may take three to six months, perhaps longer.
The DNR will remove the brain stem and lymph nodes of the deer and will send the samples to the National Veterinary Services Laboratory in Ames for testing.
It could take as little as 10 minutes to collect the sample, but that depends on the number of hunters.