Following a confirmed case of chronic wasting disease in Spokane County in July, the state Department of Fish and Wildlife has filed multiple emergency rules to help prevent the spread of the disease across the state.
Chronic wasting disease is fatal to deer, elk, moose and caribou.
The disease is caused by mutated proteins known as prions, which can contaminate the environment and be transmitted between animals through feces, saliva and urine.
Most animals with chronic wasting disease appear normal until the end stages of the disease and the presence of the disease can only be detected through testing of retropharyngeal lymph nodes or brain tissue.
Emergency rules implemented by Fish and Wildlife effective immediately outlaw the transport of deer, elk or moose, or parts thereof, taken from within the 100 series game management units of the state in areas requiring a hunting license, to other areas of the state.
This excludes meat that has been deboned where it was harvested and is imported as boned-out meat, or meat deboned within 100 series game management units.
Chronic wasting disease testing is now mandatory for salvaged deer and elk in the initial response area of game management units 124, 127, and 130.
Those salvaging carcasses must submit the whole head with at least three inches of the neck attached, or extracted lymph nodes at the base of the skull to Fish and Wildlife for chronic wasting disease sampling within three days of receiving a salvage permit.
Effective Sunday in game management units 124, 127, and 130, it is unlawful to hunt for deer, elk and moose using any type of bait placed, exposed, deposited, distributed, scattered or otherwise used for the purpose of attracting deer, elk or moose with the intent to hunt them; or natural or synthetic scents that contain or are derived from cervid urine and glandular extracts.
Also mandatory as of Sunday is the reporting of successful deer, elk and moose hunts in game management units 124, 127 and 130. Hunters are required to submit the whole head of a harvested animal with at least three inches of the neck attached or extracted lymph nodes to Fish and Wildlife for disease sampling within three days of harvesting.
