CWD sample collection workshop, weekly demonstrations scheduled in Billings

BILLINGS – Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks is offering a free instructional workshop for hunters to learn how to collect chronic wasting disease (CWD) samples from harvested deer, elk and moose. The workshop will be Tuesday, Oct. 29, at the Billings FWP office (2300 Lake Elmo Dr.) from 5-7 p.m. FWP will also offer CWD sampling demonstrations for hunters every Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday of the general season from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. at the Billings FWP office.

Participants at the workshop and demonstrations should bring a deer, elk, or moose carcass or head with neck meat from a recent harvest if they have one. Participants also need to bring their own sharp knife to collect their own samples. Frozen heads are difficult to sample and need to be thawed prior to sampling. At the workshop and weekly demonstrations, CWD technicians will show hunters how to collect their own samples from harvested deer, elk and moose.

FWP will have a limited number of deer carcasses available for participants to practice on at the Oct. 29 workshop. FWP wildlife staff will be available at the workshop to provide information and answer questions.

Registration is required for the Oct. 29 workshop. To register for the workshop, send your name, preferred method of contact and if you have your own animal head to sample to Region 5 CWD coordinator Britney Duvall at 406-220-8055 or Britney.Duvall@mt.gov.

Hunting is the primary tool for monitoring and managing the spread of CWD. Although CWD testing is voluntary across most of Montana, samples from hunter-harvested deer, elk and moose are critical to FWP’s understanding of this fatal disease. Multiple big game hunting districts near Billings are Priority Surveillance Areas for CWD, which are areas where FWP is making a concerted effort to gather more samples. For more information on CWD Priority Surveillance Areas in Montana, visit: fwp.mt.gov/conservation/chronic-wasting-disease/in-montana.

CWD testing is free, and there are multiple options for submitting samples. Hunters can either take the samples themselves and fill out an online hunter submission form and mail them to the Wildlife Health Lab in Bozeman; or they can bring the animal carcass (or head) to an FWP regional office or CWD sampling station this fall. Visit the FWP website for sampling station locations and hours: fwp.mt.gov/conservation/chronic-wasting-disease/get-your-animal-sampled.

CWD is a fatal disease that infects members of the deer family, including elk, moose, mule deer, and white-tailed deer, and hunters play a key role in minimizing the spread and providing data.