HELENA, Mont. (NMB) – With hunting season beginning, Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks is urging hunters to have animals tested prior to donating meat.
Every year, hunters in Montana donate thousands of pounds of wild game to local food banks through local meat processors.
But with the discovery of Chronic Wasting Disease (CWD) in Montana, hunters should ensure deer, elk and moose test negative for the disease prior to donating, no matter where in Montana they are harvested.
Hunters can have their deer, elk and moose tested for CWD in a few ways. They can take the samples themselves and submit them to the FWP Wildlife Health Lab in Bozeman. Or they can bring the animal’s head with a few inches of neck meat attached to an FWP regional office or CWD sampling station and FWP staff can take the sample. The samples will be submitted to the Montana Veterinary Diagnostic Laboratory for testing. Results should be available within three weeks and posted online at fwp.mt.gov.
CWD is a fatal neurological disease infecting deer, elk and moose. It is not known to infect humans. However, the Centers for Disease Control advise against consuming meat from CWD positive animals. The CDC also recommends testing animals harvested in CWD positive areas prior to consumption.
The funding for much of this donated meat comes from hunters through a program called Hunters Against Hunger. Hunters are asked to donate to the program when they purchase their license each year. The donations go to offset the cost of processing the wild game.
