The Michigan DNR is asking Northern Michigan hunters for assistance as they ramp up their Chronic Wasting Disease surveillance in the northwestern counties in the Lower Peninsula.
After finding two CWD cases, one in Midland County and the other in Ogemaw County, they are asking hunters to help them by submitting the head of their harvested deer to a nearby check station. As there is no way to test for CWD in deer except for postmortem tests, these submissions will help them gather useful data on the deer herd and how CWD spreads.
“Some hunters it is really important to get their deer tested. And we want to make sure that that that opportunity is available, and they want to know the status of disease in the areas where they hunt. And we can’t do that without their cooperation. So just to be able to try to develop some of those partnerships is really important. Where the hunters can provide the sample and we can certainly provide the results,” Chad Stewart, the deer, elk and moose management specialist at the Michigan DNR, said.
If you would like to find out where your local check station is, or learn more about them in general, click here.