State continues surveillance for chronic wasting disease

Published 5:00 am Saturday, September 16, 2023

SALEM — Oregon wildlife officials urge big game hunters who tag a deer or elk early in the main rifle seasons this fall to stop by one of the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife’s chronic wasting disease (CWD) check stations.

ODFW staff will be sampling animals for this deadly disease detected in 2021 in two mule deer in Idaho within 30 miles of the Oregon border.

There will be two stations in Northeastern Oregon:

• Elgin Rodeo Grounds, 790 S. Eighth Ave. It will be open during the opening weekend of deer season, Oct. 7-9, from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., and the opening weekend of elk season, Nov. 4-6, from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.

• Baker City, ODOT parking lot off Highway 86 near Exit 302. It will be open during the same days and hours as the Elgin station.

Hunters also can contact their local ODFW office to arrange for district staff to get a sample or ask their meat processor or taxidermist.

For the second straight year, hunters transporting deer, elk or other wildlife parts who encounter a CWD check station are required, under a 2021 law, to stop to have their animal sampled. Hunters or vehicles that are not transporting wildlife carcasses or parts do not need to stop. Hunters are not required to go out of their way to drive by a check station, though ODFW encourages every hunter transporting a deer or elk to stop by if they are in the area.

When hunting out of state, remember it’s illegal to bring the brain and/or spinal column of a harvested animal back with you into Oregon. These are body parts known to harbor the disease.

Test results are expected to take up to a month. If an animal ever tests positive for CWD, a biologist or veterinarian will phone the hunter directly. Negative test results will be posted by ODFW ID number for hunters to individually check online at shorturl.at/uxGNS.

Surveillance for CWD

ODFW has sampled more than 28,000 deer and elk for CWD over the past 20 years, including animals killed by hunters or by vehicles, as the disease began to spread from Colorado and Wyoming to other states due to animal migrations and movements of live animals and carcasses by people. Oregon’s surveillance effort has not detected CWD in free-ranging deer, elk or moose within the state. But it was found in mule deer, Rocky Mountain elk and white-tailed deer in Idaho, 30 miles from the Oregon border, late in 2021.

“With the disease detected in multiple species so close to Oregon, we are concerned it could already be here,” said Dr. Colin Gillin, ODFW state wildlife veterinarian. “That’s why we are asking successful hunters to please get their animal tested this year.”

“There is no cure, no treatment, or vaccine for the disease and it is fatal to all animals that become infected,” Gillin said. “But if we catch it early, we will have the best chance of minimizing its spread and impact on Oregon’s big game herds.”

Once an animal is infected, it can take several years for symptoms to appear, so in most cases deer and elk that test positive for the disease will appear normal and healthy. That’s why ODFW tests as many animals as it can, including both hunter-harvested and roadkilled deer and elk. Oregon’s captive elk facilities are also assisting in the state’s surveillance by testing all of their captive animals that die beyond the age of 6 months.

Urine products banned

The use of products containing commercial deer or elk urine (scent lures) has been banned in Oregon as part of efforts across North America to reduce the risk of spreading CWD.

In 2019, Oregon State Legislature passed HB 2294, banning all commercially produced deer and elk urine scents that contain or are derived from any cervid urine to reduce the threat of CWD.

Hunters or businesses who have these products should safely dispose of them by bringing them to an ODFW district office. ODFW staff will arrange for any scent products collected to be incinerated in an 1,800-degree oven, a temperature known to kill the prion that causes CWD.

“It’s important that these products are not poured down a drain or on the ground when they are discarded,” Gillin said. “We want to limit the CWD prion that causes the disease from being deposited on the landscape.”

ODFW offices participating include:

• Baker City, 2995 Hughes Lane, 541-523-5832.

• Enterprise, 65495 Alder Slope Road, 541-426-3279.

• Canyon City, 305 N. Canyon City Blvd., 541-575-1167.

• La Grande, 107 20th St., 541-963-2138.

• Ontario, 3814 Clark Blvd., 541-889-6975.

• Pendleton, 73471 Mytinger Lane, 541-276-2344.