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A Chronic Wasting Disease (CWD ) Surveillance Zone is in effect for Ballard, Calloway, Carlisle, Fulton, Graves, Hickman, Marshall, and McCracken counties. This zone includes special regulations, along with mandatory check stations for deer harvested during designated dates during modern gun season.
What special regulations apply to the 8-county CWD surveillance zone?
All deer harvested within the CWD Surveillance Zone by any method during specific dates must be brought to a CWD Check Station for sampling.
Grain, feed, mineral blocks, salt blocks and other baits used to attract deer cannot be used in CWD Surveillance Zone. This helps prevent deer from concentrating, which increases spread of disease. Bird feeders in yards, planted food plots and normal agricultural practices such as mineral blocks or feed for cattle are allowed. Hunters can use products that are not ingested by deer, such as scent attractors and deer urine products.
Whole carcasses or high-risk parts (head, skull cap or skull with any brain material, or spine) of any deer, elk, moose or caribou harvested in another state cannot be brought back into Kentucky.
Carcasses or high-risk parts of deer harvested within the 8-county CWD Surveillance Zone may not be taken outside of the zone. Only de-boned meat, antlers, antlers attached to a clean skull cap, a clean skull, clean teeth, hides and finished taxidermy products may be taken out of the CWD Surveillance Zone.
Hunter's participation is vital to disease monitoring efforts. To obtain an adequate sample size for scientific testing, Kentucky Fish and Wildlife operates 13 mandatory CWD Check Stations within the CWD Surveillance Zone for deer harvested during modern gun season weekends, when most deer are harvested and adequate sampling can be ensured.
All deer harvested within the CWD Surveillance Zone by any method during 2023 modern gun season weekends must be brought to a CWD Check Station for tissue sampling.
Check stations will only operate on November 11-13, 2023. There is no mandatory deer check station requirement outside of these dates. However, free voluntary testing is available through Deer Sample Collection Stations.
The mandatory check station requirement includes license-exempt hunters, such as youths under 12 and landowners hunting on their own property, and those who take deer during these dates by other methods, such as muzzleloader or archery equipment. Deer given to others by a hunter during these dates must be physically checked as well. All deer should be telechecked before coming to the check station.
Check stations will operate from 9 a.m. - 7 p.m. (Central) on the dates listed above. Hunters may bring in an intact deer carcass, a field-dressed deer, or just the head of the deer for sampling at a check station. Biologists will take tissue samples at the check stations to monitor for the presence of CWD. Hunters will be asked for an approximate location where they harvested the deer, the name of the taxidermist or processor, if being used, and provide telecheck and licensing information. Tissue sampling will not harm heads or capes/hides intended for taxidermy mounts—please advise staff at the check station if you intend to have your deer head mounted.
Hunters will receive a card verifying their visit to the check station. Cards will contain information about how to view test results for their deer. Test results are generally available within six weeks or less.
Before you hit the woods, check this map to determine the location of your potential harvest. This location number will be used when you visit a check station or a deer sample collection station.
On Sept. 8, 2021, the Kentucky Department of Fish and Wildlife Resources activated its Chronic Wasting Disease (CWD) Response Plan and established a CWD Surveillance Zone in Hickman, Fulton, Graves, Calloway, and Marshall counties. This action was prompted by the Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency's detection of CWD in a 3 and a half year old female deer from Henry County, Tennessee. The detection was located approximately 7.8 miles south of the Tennessee state line, southwest of Murray, Kentucky. Following Kentucky's first in-state detection of CWD in Ballard County in December 2023, the CWD Surveillance Zone expanded to include Ballard, Carlisle, and McCracken counties, and remains in effect for Hickman, Fulton, Graves, Calloway, and Marshall counties.
Recorded meetings of the Kentucky Fish and Wildlife Commission provide comprehensive details of the CWD Response Plan and the department's response.
These are available in the "Commission Meetings" playlist on the department's YouTube channel at youtube.com/FishandWildlifeKY.
Please contact our Information Center at 1-800-858-1549 or Info.Center@ky.gov if you have any questions not answered below.
A deer harvested within the CWD Surveillance Zone may be checked at any of the CWD check stations.
CWD check stations will be open from 9 a.m. to 7 p.m. (Central). Specific dates will be announced for 2024 soon. Hunters will receive a card at each CWD check station verifying their visit to the check station. Cards will contain information about how to view CWD test results for their deer.
An intact or gutted carcass, or the entire head with the proof of sex, and a completed harvest log.
If a hunter would like to provide only the head as a sample, the department asks that you sever the head with several inches of the neck included. This ensures that the lymph nodes needed to test for CWD are included.
No, just the proximity. Hunters are welcome to share the exact location, but that information is not required. This information is only used to identify areas of adequate or insufficient surveillance of CWD.
If you are unable to reach a CWD check station prior to it closing, please bring the deer to a CWD check station the next day. If CWD check stations are closed the next day, please bring the deer head to a Deer Sample Collection Station.
Yes. Hunters should make sure to visit a staffed CWD check station. Department staff will work with hunters to ensure your deer can still be processed by a taxidermist. Do not visit a Deer Sample Collection Station if you intend to get your deer taxidermied. Deer heads and parts and cannot be returned after being dropped off at freezers.
There are additional Deer Sample Collection Stations within the CWD Surveillance Zone. There, hunters can submit the head of their deer to be tested for CWD.
This information is forthcoming.
Early detection can help prevent CWD from spreading. In order to detect the disease as early as possible, the department needs many samples from the area. The more samples received, the more reliable the testing results are.
Hunters should expect results to be online within 4-6 weeks. If any sample results are positive, Kentucky Fish and Wildlife will contact the hunter as soon as possible. Look up CWD test results.
Concentrating deer at particular sites can speed up the spread and intensity of disease. Deer cannot be vaccinated against CWD, so adding a vaccine to bait is not an option or solution.
Infected deer can spread the prions that cause CWD throughout the landscape. CWD prions trigger abnormal reactions in brain cells of deer, elk, and other cervids. Prions are highly resistant to destruction and normal means of disinfection do not destroy prions. Prions can survive on the landscape for years, therefore it is important not to congregate animals and increase the concentration of prions because the risk of transmission to other animals increases.
The best way to stop the spread of prions is keeping infected deer contained and minimizing concentrations of animals.
Prohibited baiting includes putting out grains, minerals, and salt. Scents and deer urine-based products used in hunting will still be allowed.
Yes, the Association of Fish and Wildlife Agencies lists bans on baiting and feeding as a "best management practice." Congregating animals raises the chance of the disease spreading. Studies on mineral licks in Minnesota demonstrated that prions were present and acting as a source of infection in these locations. Anything that increases the concentration of prions can increase the spread. The department wants to have deer hunting opportunities for future generations and "chronic" diseases like CWD are a long-term concern. It takes a long time for the disease to become noticeable, so the department is trying to preserve and conserve the resource before it gets to that point. Deer are social and congregate; they interact and communicate with each other - so for the department, it's all about diluting those opportunities. The department can't control how often deer groom each other or where they travel, but it can control how much we encourage deer to congregate in one spot. Deer behavior and biology won't change, but doing what we can to restrict congregation is the goal. At a corn pile, hundreds of deer can come to that one spot. In nature, you don't see that kind of behavior or congregation of deer happening in any other situation.
Yes, all bait must be removed from the landscape.
No, homeowners may have birdfeeders that hang above ground, kept within the curtilage of their homes. Please refer to the special regulations for the 8-county CWD surveillance zone.
Violations of special regulations will be taken very seriously, and penalties could range anywhere from a warning to losing hunting or firearm rights, or ultimately jail time.
Anyone can use the KFWLaw app or text the keywork "KFWLAW" along with the rest of their message or tip to 847411 (tip411). Tips can also be reported by calling 1-800-25-ALERT (1-800-252-5378).
Currently, all counties in the CWD Surveillance Zone are in Zone 1.
Hunters are encouraged to continue hunting with a few modifications if harvesting animals in the CWD Surveillance Zone. These modifications include following CWD regulations aimed to reduce transmission and the spread of disease. The department asks that you make the adjustments previously outlined regarding baiting and visiting CWD check stations when mandatory check is required. Reducing any potential spread of the disease is our primary concern and hunters should follow routine health and safety precautions, including not moving carcasses out of the CWD Surveillance Zone, and not harvesting or consuming any game animal found sick or dead. The CDC recommends not eating meat from an animal that tests positive for CWD.
The initial actions of the CWD Response Plan for a positive case closely mirror those already underway in response to the CWD-positive deer near the Kentucky-Tennessee border. The department will initiate widespread surveillance efforts to collect numerous samples from the vicinity of the positive detection. This comprehensive approach aims to provide biologists with crucial data on the disease's prevalence and distribution. Upon confirmation of a positive CWD test in Kentucky, the department can then proceed to implement targeted measures outlined in the response plan.
Text forthcoming.
Kentucky Department of Fish and Wildlife Resources