With a couple of the elk seasons underway and more approaching, the Nebraska Game and Parks Commission asked for elk hunters’ cooperation in testing for chronic wasting disease.
Staff at check stations will ask elk hunters to allow removal of lymph nodes from elk to test for the disease, frequently referred to by its initials — CWD.
The tests at the Nebraska Veterinary Diagnostic Laboratory have about a two-week turn-around, and staff will notify hunters if their animals tested positive for CWD. As a new service this year all test results will be posted to links at the bottom of the Commission’s website devoted to the disease —outdoornebraska.org/cwd. The site contains a wealth of other information about the disease, which is caused by a deformed protein called a prion and passed from some animals to others.
Archery bull season for elk began Sept. 1, following the cow season for private land hunters Aug. 15. The harvest for cows on public land and firearm bull season begin Sept. 21.
Staff also will collect lymph nodes from deer during the firearm season for that species in November.
(Photo source: Nebraska Game and Parks)