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By Walt Young
For the Mirror
If asked to pick my favorite topic to write about, I would find that a difficult choice. There are just too many things in the outdoors that I find interesting and enjoy discussing. On the other hand, selecting my least favorite outdoor topic is a much easier task.
My least favorite subject for the last nine years is easily chronic wasting disease or CWD. Despite that, I have found myself compelled to write about CWD several times a year to keep fellow hunters informed about this continuing threat to our deer herd here in Pennsylvania.
Sadly, there has been little good news to report about this insidious disease since it was first detected in free-ranging deer back in Blair and Bedford counties back in 2012. Since that initial outbreak, CWD has spread dramatically throughout southcentral Pennsylvania with alarming increases in the infection rates.
To help contain the spread of CWD, the Pennsylvania Game Commission created Disease Management Areas (DMA) and imposed special rules within the DMA such as a prohibition on feeding wild deer, a ban on the use of urine-based deer attractants, and making it unlawful to export or remove any high-risk carcass parts of any deer harvested outside of the DMA.
High-risk parts include the head, including brain, tonsils, eyes and any lymph nodes; spinal cord/backbone; spleen; skull plate with attached antlers, if visible brain or spinal cord tissue is present; cape, if visible brain or spinal cord tissue is present; upper canine teeth, if root structure or other soft tissue is present; any object or article containing visible brain or spinal cord tissue; unfinished taxidermy mounts; and brain-tanned hides. Carcass parts that are considered safe to move include meat with no part of the spinal column or head attached; cleaned hides without the head; skull plates and/or antlers cleaned of all brain tissue; upper canine teeth without soft tissue; or finished taxidermy mounts.
As has been the case each year since CWD was first detected in Pennsylvania, hunters need to be aware of some rule changes regarding CWD for the upcoming hunting seasons. The first of those applies to hunters who plan to hunt out of state. It is now unlawful to import into Pennsylvania any high-risk parts from any deer, elk, moose, mule deer or other cervid harvested anywhere outside of Pennsylvania, regardless of a state or province's CWD status. In previous years, the importation ban on importing high-risk parts only applied to animals taken in another state or Canadian province where CWD has been detected. The Game Commission also advises hunters to have their animal tested for CWD if possible if it was taken in a state or province known to have an outbreak of CWD.
The second change will affect many hunters in our region who will be hunting deer in DMA 2. First established in 2012, DMA 2 has been expanded another 274 square miles into Dauphin and Northumberland counties since 2020 and now comprises approximately 7,744 square miles. DMA 2 currently includes all or parts of Adams, Bedford, Blair, Cambria, Centre, Clearfield, Cumberland, Dauphin, Franklin, Fulton, Huntingdon, Indiana, Juniata, Mifflin, Northumberland, Perry, Snyder, Somerset, Union, and Westmoreland counties. This year, a special subsection of DMA 2 has been designated as an Established Area (EA). This EA comprises all WMU 4A and parts of WMU 2C and has the dubious distinction of having produced more than 90 percent of the all the cases of CWD found in Pennsylvania to date. Recent test results in the EA have shown about 14 percent of deer to be positive for CWD. That's about one animal in seven, a sobering statistic to be sure.
Because of the high incidence rate of CWD within the EA, hunters are prohibited from moving high-risk parts outside of the EA, even into the surrounding DMA. According to the Game Commission, "Hunters who take a deer within the EA must either butcher it and dispose of the high-risk parts within EA boundaries or take it to a processor within the EA. Those who want to have a deer from the EA mounted must cape it to remove all high-risk parts or take it to a taxidermist within the EA." All those restrictions will undoubtedly make things a bit more complicated for hunters in the EA.
The ongoing efforts to manage and contain CWD in Pennsylvania continue to add more and more rules and regulations for deer hunters to deal with, especially here in our region. A special section on CWD is available in the "purple" section in the back of the Pennsylvania Hunting and Trapping Digest that comes with your hunting license. Even more and the most up-to-date information including maps of the specific boundaries of the DMAs and the new EA can be found at the Pennsylvania Game Commission website, www.pgc.pa.gov/CWD.