State calls on local hunters to help track CWD

On the eve of the general hunting season, Fish, Wildlife and Park officials again urged hunters to help the state track the spread of chronic wasting disease.

While hunters are no longer required to have their game sampled for CWD this year, FWP is still offering free sampling. Neil Anderson, FWP Regional Wildlife Manager, asked hunters, specifically those in northwest Montana, to avail themselves of the testing and help the state agency gather data on the prevalence of the disease.

“We would sure appreciate anyone who harvests a deer, elk or moose try to stop by and try to get some samples,” Anderson said during an Oct. 22 public meeting on the state’s CWD policies this year.

“It’ll really help us as well as anyone else interested in deer and elk have a better understanding of where CWD is in northwest Montana.”

Thanks to past sampling efforts, Anderson said officials know that there is a high prevalence of CWD in and around Libby. The disease also is present at a lower level in the Libby CWD Management Zone, a surveillance area that extends in an approximately 10-mile radius from town.

FWP officials are uncertain, though, of how far beyond the Libby area the disease may have spread.

“Our goal this year is to try to get a lot of samples in the area outside of the Libby area and to also monitor the prevalence within the management zone,” Anderson said.

Hunters in the Libby area will be able to test their game at a sampling station at the state Transportation Department shop near mile marker 35 of U.S. Highway 2. Whereas the station was open daily last year, FWP will only staff it from 11 a.m. until dusk on Saturdays, Sundays and Mondays this season.

For hunters outside of Libby, FWP offers sampling at their Region 1 Office in Kalispell from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday. Sampling stations on U.S. Highway 2 west of Kalispell, Highway 83 north of Swan Lake and in Olney will be open on Saturdays and Sundays from 11 a.m. until dusk. Hunters will be able to test their game at the Lincoln County Fairgrounds in Eureka on Mondays from 10 a.m. until 6 p.m. The sampling site in Thompson Falls will be open Saturday through Monday from 11 a.m. until dusk.

Anderson said officials hoped to catch hunters as they were coming out of the field with fresh kills. Tissue samples cannot be taken from frozen game. Hunters who harvest game during the week can have it tested at the Kalispell office or keep it cool until the weekend and have it sampled at one of the outlying stations.

Hunters may also collect their own samples. The agency has posted instructions and a video demonstration on its website that explain how to collect and submit lymph nodes from a kill.

In another significant change, FWP will no longer restrict the transportation of animal carcasses across the state. Last year’s restrictions, intended to reduce the spread of the disease, proved to be a headache for hunters. As new CWD cases cropped up throughout Montana, FWP had to issue new restrictions for areas — sometimes in the middle of the hunting season.

“Those were a little confusing to folks,” Anderson said.

Hunters are still asked not to leave the remains of their kill in the woods. While Flathead Valley hunters are allowed to use garbage receptacles for carcasses, Anderson said hunters in Lincoln County must bring their game remains to a designated landfill.

The first case of CWD west of the Continental Divide was confirmed in Libby in July 2019. Survey results showed that the CWD was present among 13.1 percent of sampled whitetails in the Libby area. The prevalence of the disease was 3.5 percent among tested whitetails and 1.3 percent among tested mule deer in the Libby CWD Management Zone. Anderson said two moose on the edge of the management zone tested positive which was unusual.

Hunters may purchase an either sex B License for whitetail deer within the Libby zone. State officials hope that with these licenses, hunters will be able to help lower the prevalence of the disease to below five percent in the area.

FWP officials plan to undertake trapping efforts in and around Libby this year. City officials are also working with the state on a management plan that primarily concerns the handling of the community’s deer population.

Though there is no known case of transmission of CWD from deer to humans, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends not eating meat from infected animals.

State Rep. Steve Gunderson, R-Libby, voiced his support for the agency's efforts to manage the disease during the Oct. 22 meeting.

“I think we’re going in the right direction and things are looking good,” Gunderson said.

A recording of the Oct. 22 meeting can be found on the FWP website along with information regarding CWD policies.