More CWD found in Liberty County

A deer harvested in Liberty County has tested positive for chronic wasting disease for the second straight year, this time in the southern part of the county.

Due to the confirmation, Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks announced, the CWD-positive area in this region now is the entirety of LIberty County, hunting districts 400 and 401, and a transportation zone now is in place for all of Toole, Liberty and Hill counties.

HD 400 and neighboring HD 401 are unique in that they both have three-week deer seasons as opposed to the standard five-week season typical in the state, FWP said in a release.

The priority surveillance area in includes much of northern Montana.

FWP Region 6 Information and Education Manager Marc Kloker said Thursday that the transportation restriction in Hill, Liberty and Toole counties means that people cannot transport brain or spinal column tissue out of those three counties. He said if a hunter quarters their deer and leaves the brain and spinal column for scavengers, the game can then be taken out of the region.

People are not required to have their harvested game tested for CWD, but FWP is asking people who harvest a deer in Liberty County to do so prior to eating any of the meat.

Kloker said people should bring the head and upper part of the animal's neck to the testing station

A new case of CWD also was confirmed in a deer harvested in Carbon County.

A mule deer buck shot about 30 miles north of Chester Nov. 12, 2017, tested positive for the wasting disease.

That followed deer harvested south of Billings previously testing positive for the disease.

CWD is a progressive, fatal neurological disease.

It was discovered in an elk in a game farm near Philipsburg in 1999, but least year marked the first time the disease has been found in wild game in Montana.

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 the disease affects deer, elk, reindeer, sika deer and moose.

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.

Research indicates that it is unlikely that direct transmission of CWD from infected animals to humans occurs. However, the similarities between CWD, mad cow disease and Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease are cause for concern, and appropriate precautions should be taken with harvested animals, a FWP release said. Hunters should not harvest animals that appear sick, nor should they eat meat from suspect animals.

Hunters can bring animals into the Havre and Glasgow FWP offices to submit samples for testing and can visit surveillance area check stations, which are open on weekends, or contact or visit the FWP regional office in Great Falls at 406-454-5840, Glasgow at 406-228-3700, Havre at 406-265-6177, Missoula at 406-542-5500, or Billings at 406-247-2940 during the week.

Check station locations that will sample for CWDare at:

• Scobey (first half of season)

• Glasgow, second half of season

• Highway 223 at the Teton River Nov. 11

• Malta

• Laurel

• Chester

• Shelby

• Great Falls office during the week

• South of Hall

• South of Phillipsburg

FWP said in the release that hunters need to be aware that by expanding the priority surveillance efforts to include all of HD 400, FWP is relying on collecting more samples from the area to determine CWD prevalence among the deer population and potential distribution of the disease. This information is critical for FWP in developing a plan for managing the disease.

FWP would like hunters who harvest deer, elk or moose within the priority surveillance area, which includes the Hi-Line from the Blackfeet Indian Reservation to the North Dakota border and HDs 210, 212 and 217 in western Montana, to submit the animals for CWD testing