The Manitoba government announced a couple of changes are coming to the way that hunters can submit samples for testing of Chronic Wasting Disease (CWD).
For the 2023-24 hunting season, hunters will have the option to extract and submit the testable tissue samples themselves instead of having to send in the entire head of an animal. As well, the mandatory sample submission period has been extended to 7 days from 2. This is to allow for more time to get the required samples.
The changes are being made to speed up the turnaround time for test results. Ever since the province expanded the Mandatory Sample Submission Zones in 2022, testing facilities have seen a massive uptick in samples received.
CWD was first detected in Manitoba in a male mule deer in November of 2021. Not long after, two more deer infected with the disease were detected and one of them was found near Lake Of The Prairies.
CWD is not known to be a health risk to humans but eating meat from an infected animal is not recommended.
