Fish Wildlife and Parks sets CWD information sessions

Staff and wire

Following the first discovery of chronic wasting disease in the wild, Montana, Fish, Wildlife and Parks is hosting three meetings about the disease ahead of the upcoming hunting season.

The public information sessions will discuss CWD and planned surveillance efforts, a release from the agency says.

Sessions will be held from 6 to 8 p.m. on

• Tuesday, Oct. 9, in Glasgow in the Cottonwood Inn Conference Room

• Monday, Oct. 15, in Scobey in the Nemont Friendship Room

• Tuesday, Oct. 16, in Havre in the Hill County Electric Hospitality Room

Last year, FWP discovered CWD in deer south of Billings and north of Chester. This contagious neurological disease can infect deer, elk and moose. It is always fatal and no cure is known.

Prior to last year, the only confirmed case was in an elk in a game farm near Philipsburg in 1999.

The disease is known to exist in wild animals in Alberta and Saskatchewan in Canada and in Wyoming and North and South Dakota.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says that while no cases of the disease infecting people have been reported, it is recommended to never ingest meat from animals that appear to be sick or are known to be CWD positive. The CDC recommends hunters who have harvested a deer, elk or moose from a known CWD-infected area have the animal tested prior to consuming it.

If hunters harvest an animal that appears to be sick, the best thing to do is contact FWP and have the animal inspected, the agency said.

Because of the new discovery in Montana last year, transport restrictions are in place for deer harvested in locations where CWD has been detected.

FWP will conduct extra surveillance during the general fall hunting season in high-priority areas in parts of northern and western Montana, including Hunting Districts 640, 670, 630, 620, 611 and 600 in Region 6.  Check stations for collecting CWD samples from deer and elk will be in operation over the weekends and located in Havre, the Malta area, and shifting between the Scobey and Glasgow areas. 

Check station locations are subject to change depending upon sampling priority, and locations will be updated weekly on the Region 6 Facebook page.

All hunters must stop at all check stations, but submission of CWD samples is voluntary.  Deer heads may also be submitted at the FWP Region 6 Headquarters in Glasgow and the Havre Field Office.

FWP biologists and others will be at the information sessions to answer questions and talk about ways people can help FWP with CWD surveillance this fall.

To learn more, people can visit http://www/fwp.mt.gov/cwd/. 

FWP ensures that its meetings are fully accessible to people with disabilities. To request special accommodations for this meeting, or if there are any questions, people can contact 406-228-3700.