How to Get Your Deer, Elk or Moose Tested for CWD

Chronic wasting disease (CWD) is a fatal disease of deer, elk, moose and caribou. Hunter samples are how BC finds it and tracks where it is going.

Here is what to bring in and how.

What do I bring in?

The lab tests the retropharyngeal lymph nodes and tonsils in deer, and the lymph nodes and brainstem (obex) in elk and moose. You don’t need to find them yourself – just get the right part of the animal to a freezer.

Deer: whole head

• Cut through the neck about 3 inches behind the skull.
• Remove the antlers at the base or with the skull plate.

Deer: lower jaw (keeping a Euro Mount)

Want to keep the skull? Bring in the lower jaw instead.

• Take the lower jaw with the tongue and the tissue at the back of the throat still attached. That throat tissue is what gets tested.

Elk and moose: whole head

• Cut through the neck about 3 inches behind the skull. Don’t cut tight to the skull – the brainstem sits right where the skull meets the spine, and a tight cut can ruin the sample.
• Remove the antlers at the base or with the skull plate.

Find a freezer

Drop-off freezers are set up across BC during hunting season. Find the closest one on our freezer map.

No freezer near you? Call the BC Wildlife Health Office at 250-751-3219.

At the freezer

Everything you need is at every freezer: CWD card, pen, cable tie and bag.

1. Fill out a CWD card.
2. Zip-tie the card to the sample (base of the ear for a head, or to the jaw).
3. Keep the perforated stub. The number on it is how you look up your result.
4. Bag it and put it in the freezer.

Getting your result

Use the number on your card stub (or a photo of your card) to look up your result at gov.bc.ca/CWDresults.

Positive results are not posted online – the province contacts you directly.

Lookup not working? Call the Wildlife Health Program Office at 250-751-7246.

Hunting in the mandatory zone?

In Management Units 4-1 to 4-8 and 4-20 to 4-25, submitting a sample is a condition of your licence for deer, elk and moose.

• Submit within 7 days of harvest.
• Submit before you leave the area.
• Report your harvest location online.

Questions?

The BC Wildlife Health Program has two numbers. Which one you call depends on what you need:

Or email CWD@gov.bc.ca for either.

This CWD program is supported by the Habitat Conservation Trust Foundation.