The Pennsylvania Game Commission has changed the rules relating to Chronic Wasting Disease (CWD) and hunting out-of-state.
Previously, hunters couldn’t bring “high-risk” carcass parts from animals such as deer or elk from other states back to Pennsylvania. Hunters also couldn’t move the parts from Disease Management Areas (DMAs) or the Established Area (EA) to anywhere else in the state.
High-risk parts include the head, spinal cord and backbone, spleen, and any object containing visible brain or spinal cord tissues, to name a few.
These rules were meant to limit the spread of CWD, an always fatal brain disease, by humans.
The Game Commission recognized that the rules posed challenges for hunters, who likely had to make return trips to pick up their meat or mount from the harvested animal.
In an effort to make things easier on hunters while still battling CWD, the Game Commission changed its protocol. Now, hunters can bring deer, elk or other services harvested out-of-state directly to an approved processor or taxidermist anywhere in the state. The same goes for cervids harvested in DMAs and the EA.
There are also options for hunters who process their own meat. For animals harvested with a DMA or the EA, it can be brought home for process as long as the high-risk parts are disposed of in the trash. Hunters who live outside a DMA or the EA can quarter the animal and take it home without high-risk parts.
All these regulations also apply to deer killed in vehicle collisions and picked up for consumption.
The Game Commission says there are three purposes to the new rules: ensure proper disposal of high-risk parts, enhance CWD surveillance and make taking deer more convenient.
CWD was first found in Pennsylvania in 2012 and so far the deadly disease has been found in 1,200 deers. It’s not been found in any elks.
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