How To Remove Lymph Nodes For CWD Testing
Luke Meduna, the Nebraska Game and Parks Big Game Program Manager walks you though how to remove a deer's lymph nodes so that you can have them tested for Chronic Wasting Disease (CWD). More Information on CWD in Nebraska: http://outdoornebraska.gov/cwd/ CWD Information: cwd-info.org WHERE TO GET YOUR DEER TESTED FOR CWD The Nebraska Veterinary Diagnostic Laboratory (NVDL) in Lincoln will test deer for CWD. Hunters also can contact their local veterinarian for assistance. Contact the NVDL prior to tissue collection or sample submission. Visit the webpage: https://vbms.unl.edu/tse-test Nebraska Veterinary Diagnostic Laboratory East Campus Loop #151 Lincoln, NE 68503 402-472-1434 Kansas State Veterinary Diagnostic Laboratory will also test hunter-harvested deer samples for CWD. Contact the KSVDL for sample submission information. Kansas State Veterinary Diagnostic Lab Kansas State University; Manhattan, KS 866-512-5650 clientcare@vet.k-state.edu Test results may take up to 6-8 weeks and times will vary depending on the volume of samples submitted. Hunters should keep this in mind if test results are desired before processing deer. WHAT IS CWD? Chronic Wasting Disease (CWD) is a prion disease that attacks the brain of infected deer, elk, and moose. Animals in the late stages of CWD are often emaciated, show erratic behavior, and exhibit neurological irregularities. However, due to the long, slow advancement of the disease, infected animals are almost always killed by predators, vehicles, hunters, or other diseases well before symptoms of CWD get bad enough for a person to recognize. To complicate matters, many of these signs can also be symptoms of other diseases. CWD is always fatal to the infected animal. CWD was first discovered in Colorado in 1967 and in Nebraska in 2000 in Kimball County. Since 1997, Nebraska Game and Parks Commission staff have tested nearly 52,000 deer and found 630 that tested positive. CWD is now found in 42 counties across the state (see map below), but no population declines attributable to the disease have yet occurred.
