Province reinstates CWD testing after hunters push back
By Your Southwest Media Group
The province reinstated its chronic wasting disease test program for deer, elk and moose on Thursday after complaints from hunters and the Saskatchewan Wildlife Federation.
“We heard clearly from hunters that access to CWD testing matters to them and their families,” Darlene Rowden, the environment minister, said in a statement.
“CWD testing is an important resource for hunters and provides valuable information to help monitor the disease in Saskatchewan’s wildlife,” Darrell Crabbe of the wildlife federation said in another statement, expressing gratitude for maintaining the program and to federation members who’d lobbied MLAs.
The government had decided to end the free program in a cost-cutting measure, officials revealed about a week earlier.
Hunters who shoot animals in certain areas must provide heads for testing and people who take them in other zones may also provide heads for scientific analysis, a statement said.
This method is “consistent with the approach used in 2025-26,” the Ministry of Environment statement said.
“Mandatory testing requirements will also remain in place in designated wildlife management zones,” it said, adding that other “samples already accepted” will get tested.
Hunters must submit heads from game they take using draw and regular licences for elk and deer in zones 43, the Melfort, Tisdale, Nipawin area; 47, from North Battleford northwest to the Alberta border through Turtleford; 50, across the South Saskatchewan River from zone 43; and 55, north of zone 47 and stretching from Pierceland to Meadow Lake.
Mandatory testing also applies to regular season white-tailed deer taken in zones 43 and 47.
Staff running the testing program, who provide results about six weeks after head submission, will continue to inform hunters if their animals carried the disease. The tests will also give the department information about the disease’s prevalence and distribution, the statement said.
People should keep the meat frozen until getting back the test results. No evidence exists that eating the diseased meat harms humans.