Bye. confirms more chronic wasting diseases in deer, expands hunter permit program

Pennsylvania hunting regulators announced Friday other confirmed cases of Chronic Wasting Disease (CWD) in white-tailed deer and an expansion of a management program open to hunters.

The new Deer Management Assistance Program (DMAP) units were established in response to new detections of CWD in western Pennsylvania’s Armstrong County and south-central York County, the state Game Commission said.

DMAP provides hunters with additional tags to hunt and harvest antlerless deer with the goal of helping the Game Commission learn about the impact of the disease in those areas, according to a news release.

“Hunters who secure their tags, harvest deer and submit them for testing play an active role in helping to monitor CWD where it exists in Pennsylvania,” Game Commission Executive Director Steve Smith said in a statement. press release, thanking hunters for their help. “At the same time, the free CWD testing offered by the Game Commission in these areas allows hunters to make an informed decision before consuming venison.”

In Armstrong County, 500 DMAP antlerless deer permits have been made available in the newly established DMAP Unit 7305 near Ford City. This unit comprises approximately 25,000 acres, including all or parts of Ford City, Ford Cliff and Manorville townships and the towns of Bethel, Burrell, Kittanning and Manor.

In York County, 588 DMAP permits were allocated in the new DMAP unit 7307 near Black Rock. This unit comprises approximately 29,440 acres, including all or parts of Jefferson Borough and the towns of Codorus, Heidelberg, Manheim, North Codorus, Penn and West Manheim.

View the Game Commission’s chronic wasting disease map available at pagame.maps.arcgis.com for the exact boundaries of the new units.

The map also indicates the locations of head collection bins for hunters who wish to test their deer harvests for CWD, as well as deer processors and taxidermists cooperating with the surveillance effort.

DMAP permits can be purchased wherever hunting licenses are sold, including online at huntfish.pa.gov. Hunters must provide the DMAP unit number. Each permit costs $10.97, and hunters can obtain up to two permits per DMAP unit while supplies last.

Hunters should note that most of the acreage in the new DMAP units is privately owned and that they are required to obtain permission to hunt private land from the owner.

Contagious and always fatalChronic Wasting Disease affects the brains of members of the cervid family: black-tailed deer, moose, elk, mule deer, red deer, reindeer, sika deer, and white-tailed deer and their hybrids. There is no treatment, cure or vaccine available. It has it has not been shown to infect humansaccording to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention: “However, there could be a risk to humans if they come into contact with or eat meat from animals infected with CWD.”

The disease was first confirmed in the United States in 1967 in northern Colorado.

The The US Geological Survey on October 16 reported CWD in free-ranging cervids distributed across North America in 35 states and four Canadian provinces, and in captive cervid units in 20 states and three provinces. This was it confirmed in both free-ranging and captive cervids in Pennsylvaniawhere it was first found in 2012.