As hunting season begins, the Ontario government is calling on hunters to submit samples from harvested white-tailed deer to its Chronic Wasting Disease surveillance program, a key step in early detection and rapid response.
This year, the ministry will conduct its annual targeted surveillance in two regions throughout the hunting season: southern Ontario, from Niagara to Guelph, and eastern Ontario, in the Kingston, Perth and Brockville area.
Hunters who harvest a deer aged one year or older in a 2026 surveillance area are asked to submit a sample for testing in one of three ways: depositing the head of the harvested deer at one of the ministry’s freezer depots, open from early October to late December; allowing ministry wildlife technicians, who will be travelling through surveillance areas during portions of the fall hunt, to remove a small tissue sample; or taking the head to a participating taxidermist or butcher in the surveillance areas. Sampling does not prevent hunters from consuming the meat or, in most cases, having the head mounted.
The first 500 hunters who submit a sample in each surveillance area will receive a collectable crest and a take-home sample ID card that can be used to look up their results online after six to eight weeks.
Chronic wasting disease impacts the deer family, including white-tailed deer, elk, moose and caribou. It has not been detected in Ontario wildlife but is present in all bordering Canadian provinces and U.S. states. The disease does not pose a risk to human health, and there have been no reported cases of infection in humans.
Anyone who sees a deer, elk, moose or caribou showing signs of the disease, such as progressive weight loss, tremors, lack of coordination or abnormal behaviour, is asked to report it through the ministry’s online reporting tool, by email, or by calling the Wildlife Health Information Line at 1-888-574-6656.
Since surveillance began in 2002, the ministry has tested more than 16,500 hunter-harvested white-tailed deer in Ontario, and the disease has not been detected in any of the samples tested.
