The Iowa Department of Natural Resources will be partnering with Iowa deer hunters to collect tissue samples to monitor for chronic wasting disease during the upcoming gun seasons.
The goal is to collect samples from each county, with higher quotas based on the presence of or proximity to confirmed positive locations. Hunters interested in submitting samples to the DNR’s surveillance program can do so by contacting their local wildlife staff. Hunters can monitor progress towards county quotas on the Iowa DNR CWD Dashboard. So far during the 2025-26 surveillance year, there have been 24 positive cases of chronic wasting disease.
Hunters in areas where the disease has been found or in counties where the quota has filled, can get their deer tested through the hunter submission pathway. There is a video demonstration showing how hunters can remove the lymph nodes and package them for mailing.
The hunter submission pathway allows hunters to pull and submit their own tissue sample simply by filling out the online form and paying a $25 processing fee, the same fee the DNR pays for its samples.
No special packaging is required and hunter submitted samples are prioritized to expedite testing and results. Samples are tested at Iowa State University’s Veterinary Diagnostic Lab, and results are included with the data from samples the DNR is collecting.
Local wildlife staff can help hunters with pulling samples. There are also resources online that shows how to pull and ship samples.
Chronic wasting disease is spread through direct contact between deer and through contact with contaminated surfaces in the environment. Artificially concentrating deer by putting out grain or mineral can increase transmission of the disease because it increases the opportunity for deer to interact and come in contact with infectious material. Deer will concentrate on their own through scrapes and during the breeding season.
The disease can also be spread by transporting infected carcasses. To avoid introducing the disease to a new area, hunters should not transport deer carcasses outside of the county where it was harvested, if at all possible.
If, for some reason, hunters need to take the carcass with them, they should landfill the carcass through regular waste disposal. In the few instances where landfilling isn’t an option, hunters should return the carcass to the site of harvest after processing.