The Iowa DNR recently released a series of informational updates on chronic-wasting disease that’s found in deer.
State deer biologist Jace Elliott says they want to get information out to update everyone as the deer season is underway. “CWD has always been a hot topic. It’s controversial, and it’s important for hunters and the public to understand, you know, there, there’s a lot of information out there and we just want to help provide maybe sort of a biological, scientific and deer management focus,” he says.
If you haven’t seen any of the information, you can find it online. “Our deer hunting website, which is just iowadnr.gov/deer, has a lot of different helpful resources,” Elliott says. “We have a a sub website in there called deer health. You can find a lot of information about CWD, including our our interactive CWD dashboard.”
He says there’s also information on other diseases that impact deer. “You can also see. our EHD and blue tongue reporting tool and dashboard, So, for anybody who hasn’t visited that website, there’s a wealth of information for folks who are interested in in how and why we manage deer in Iowa,” Elliott says.
The DNR collects samples from hunters throughout the deer season to test for CWD to help track its spread in the state.