Hunting deer in Utah during the 2024 rifle season? Visit a DWR check station to get deer tested for chronic wasting disease

Salt Lake City — It's become a standard part of Utah's any legal weapon (rifle) deer hunt each year: hunters are again being asked to bring their harvested deer to various stations across the state so Utah Division of Wildlife Resources biologists can test the animals for chronic wasting disease.

Chronic wasting disease in Utah

Chronic wasting disease is a relatively rare transmissible disease that affects the nervous systems of deer, elk and moose. The disease was first discovered in Utah in 2002 in a buck deer taken during the rifle hunt near Vernal. The disease is caused by a misfolded protein, called a prion, that accumulates in the animal's brain and spinal cord. It is caused by the same type of misfolded protein as "mad cow disease" in cows and scrapie in sheep. Infected animals develop brain lesions, become emaciated, appear listless and have droopy ears. They may also salivate excessively and will eventually die.

Infected animals may shed prions in their urine, feces and saliva. Transmission may occur directly through contact with an infected animal or indirectly through environmental contamination. (A dead carcass can contaminate the soil.) Prions are extremely resilient in the environment and can stay infectious for many years.

While the Centers for Disease Control says the risk of transmission from animals to humans is considered extremely low, they recommend not consuming meat from animals infected with CWD.

Currently, 262 mule deer and 6 elk have tested positive for CWD in Utah. The disease is found in the following hunting units across Utah:

• East Canyon
• Yellowstone
• Vernal/Bonanza
• Diamond Mtn
• Book Cliffs
• Nine Mile
• La Sal
• San Juan
• Nebo
• Manti
• Wasatch Mtns, West
• Oquirrh Stansbury

What hunters should know

The DWR sets up monitoring checkpoints — rotating between various hunting units across the state on a five-year rotation — in order to sample the statewide deer populations for CWD.

Hunters who go to the check stations will receive a free CWD test if they harvested a deer on one of the units being sampled this year. Visit the DWR website to find a map of the hunting units being tested this year. DWR staff will also be in the back country and visiting hunting camps to collect big game samples, as well.

Hunters will need to leave about 6 inches of the animal's neck and windpipe attached below the jaw so that DWR employees can remove the lymph nodes for sampling. DWR employees will also ask the hunter a few questions, including the location where the animal was harvested. The entire process will only take a few minutes.

Hunters who harvest an animal in a nontarget sampling unit, but who still wish to have their deer or elk tested for CWD, may do so by providing the head of the animal to the Utah Veterinary Diagnostic Lab in Logan or Spanish Fork and paying a $30 testing fee. Deer and elk must be older than one year of age to be eligible for testing.

"We take the presence of CWD in Utah seriously and will continue to do extensive monitoring to stay on top of the disease and its prevalence in the state," DWR State Wildlife Veterinarian Ginger Stout said. "Recent surveys have shown that 78% of hunters have never had their deer tested for CWD. We are strongly encouraging hunters to stop at our check stations if they have harvested a deer within the sampling hunting units this year. The data collected through this is crucial in helping us stay on top of CWD monitoring in Utah in order to maintain healthy deer populations into the future."

Here are where the CWD monitoring check stations and sampling units will be located this year:

Northern Utah

The DWR will provide free CWD tests for deer harvested from the Cache, Ogden and East Canyon hunting units at the following locations:

• The mouth of Logan Canyon in Logan on Oct. 19-20, from roughly 9 a.m. to dusk each day.
• The mouth of Blacksmith Fork Canyon in Hyrum on Oct. 19-20, from roughly 9 a.m. to dusk each day.
• The DWR Ogden office — by appointment only — at 515 E. 5300 South from Oct. 21-25 and on Oct. 28. Call 801-476-2740 to schedule an appointment.

Northeastern Utah

The DWR will provide free CWD tests for deer harvested from the Yellowstone, Bonanza/Vernal, Diamond Mtn, Nine Mile and Book Cliffs hunting units at the following locations:

• The DWR Vernal office — by appointment only — at 318 N. Vernal Ave. from Oct. 21-25, from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Call 435-781-9453 to schedule an appointment.
• Just north of Vernal on U.S. Highway 191 at the Steinaker Reservoir rest stop (near mile marker 358) from Oct. 19-20, from roughly 9 a.m. to dark each day.

Central Utah

The DWR will provide free CWD tests for deer harvested from the Central Mtns, Manti and Central Mtns, Nebo hunting units at the following locations:

• In Spanish Fork Canyon (near the Covered Bridge community) from Oct. 19-21, from roughly 9 a.m. to dark each day.
• The DWR Springville office — by appointment only — at 1115 N. Main St. from Oct. 22-25. Call 801-491-5678 to schedule an appointment.
• The DWR Salt Lake office — by appointment only — at 1594 W. North Temple from Oct. 22-25. Call 385-835-2729 to schedule an appointment.

Southeastern Utah

The DWR will provide free CWD tests for deer harvested from the Manti/San Rafael; La Sal, La Sal Mtns; San Juan, Abajo Mtns and Nine Mile hunting units at the following locations:

• The DWR Price office — by appointment only — at 319 N. Carbonville Road, Suite A from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m on Oct. 21-25 and on Oct. 28. Call 435-613-3700 to schedule an appointment.
• Miller's Travel Center in Wellington (at the junction of state Route 6 and Nine Mile Canyon Road) on Oct. 19-21, from 10 a.m. to dark each day.
• La Sal Junction (at the intersection of US-191 and state Route 46) on Oct. 19-21, from 10 a.m. to dark each day.

Southern Utah

The DWR will provide free CWD tests for deer harvested from the Monroe, Fishlake, Thousand Lakes, Boulder/Kaiparowits, Mt Dutton and Pine Valley hunting units at the following locations:

• The DWR Cedar City office — by appointment only — at 1470 N. Airport Road. Call 435-865-6100 to schedule an appointment.
• Sand Ledges (at mile marker 21 on state Route 24) on October 19-20, from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.
• You can also call a regional biologist to collect a sample if you have a permit for the sample hunting units.