By P.J. Reilly/LNP | LancasterOnline
P.J. Reilly / LNP | LancasterOnline
This is the Game Commission deer head collection bin that has sat in the Salisbury Township Office parking lot off Route 340 the past few years.
Pennsylvania hunters worried about deer they’ve shot being infected with chronic wasting disease can get their deer tested for free.
For the first time this fall, hunters can take the heads of deer shot anywhere in the state and deposit them in collection bins located throughout the 10 chronic wasting disease Disease Management Areas for free testing by the state Game Commission.
“Any deer head placed in a head bin will be tested, regardless of where in the state it was harvested,” said Game Commission spokesman Joshua Zimmerman.
Previously, those collection bins were reserved for the heads of deer taken within the management area where the deer were shot and where the bins were located.
Hunters who shot deer outside a management area could submit samples on their own for testing to a laboratory for a fee.
Allowing hunters to now place heads in management area collection bins from deer taken anywhere in the state is good news for Lancaster County hunters concerned about chronic wasting disease, since there are seven collection bins located here.
Chronic wasting disease is an always-fatal disease that infects deer and elk by attacking the central nervous system.
It was first found in 1967 in captive mule deer in Colorado, and then the first case in the wild was detected in an elk in Colorado in 1981.
Chronic wasting disease has been spreading across North America ever since.
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The Game Commission began testing for it in Pennsylvania in 1998, but it wasn’t found here until October 2012, when a captive deer in Adams County tested positive for it.
The first confirmed case of chronic wasting disease in a wild deer in Pennsylvania was recorded a month later, when three deer in Bedford and Blair counties were found with it.
In the 2024-25 sampling year, the Game Commission tested over 11,000 deer for chronic wasting disease.
Samples from those deer were collected through a variety of avenues, including placing heads in the over 120 special, management area collection bins.
More than 4,400 heads were obtained just from those collection bins.
Zimmerman reported that 30 deer were collected from the eight bins in Lancaster County.
None were found to have chronic wasting disease.
Statewide, a total of 530 deer were found to have chronic wasting disease from all the sampling done last year.
When chronic wasting disease is found in Pennsylvania, a management area is created around the site where the deer was found or harvested.
Increased monitoring then occurs in that area, and hunters are subjected to a slate of special rules.
Among the rules are that no high-risk parts — spine, brain, spleen — may be taken out of the management area where a deer was shot, and deer feeding and the use of urine-based lures are banned.
Currently, there are 10 deer management areas in Pennsylvania, covering about a third of the state, mainly in the southcentral region.
Most of Lancaster County is in management area 4, since chronic wasting disease was found in captive deer kept at a farm in the northern part of the county in 2018, and in the southern part in 2022.
Chronic wasting disease has not ever been detected in wild deer in Lancaster County.
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The Deer Management Area 4 head collection bins in the county are at:
— Bowmansville Fire Company, 146 W. Maple Grove Road, Bowmansville
— West Earl Township Building, 157 W. Metzler Road, Ephrata
— Muddy Run Recreation Park parking area on Route 372 at Old Pinnacle Road
— State Game Lands 136 parking area, Puseyville Road and Street Road, Kirkwood
— Blue Rock Fire Rescue House 903, 3079 River Road, Conestoga
— Salisbury Township Office, 5581 Old Philadelphia Pike, Gap
— Middle Creek Wildlife Management Area, Hopeland Road, 1 mile East of Route 897
“Since head bins are placed in areas where chronic wasting disease has already been detected, it can help provide additional information as to the level of chronic wasting disease in the area and monitoring the effect of management activities over time,” Zimmerman said.
“It also provides hunters with additional information they can use when deciding to consume venison.”
The Game Commission advises hunters not to eat venison from deer known to have chronic wasting disease.
“While chronic wasting disease has not been shown to infect humans, federal health officials consider it a theoretical risk, leading to the recommendation to avoid consuming meat from chronic wasting disease-positive animals,” the agency’s website states.
Hunters who want to have deer tested for chronic wasting disease should place the head — with harvest tag filled out and attached to the ear — in a plastic garbage bag and seal it.
Antlers attached to the skull will not be returned, so remove those first if you want to keep them.
Place the bag into a collection bin, where samples are picked up by Game Commission staff about twice a week during hunting seasons.
Samples from each head are removed and sent to a lab for testing.
When results are returned to the Game Commission, that information is entered into a database.
The agency then mails a postcard to the submitting hunter informing them how to check for results either online at pgc.pa.gov or by calling the chronic wasting disease hotline at 833-463-6293.
If chronic wasting disease is confirmed in a sample, the submitting hunter will be notified via certified letter with the test result and information on what the hunter can/should do next.
Zimmerman said it takes about two weeks for test results to come back, although that time might be a bit shorter in early archery season or a bit longer during the firearms season.
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