Pennsylvania Game News - September 2022 - 7

CWD IN PENNSYLVANIA
DMA BOUNDARIES
More hunters in more places will feel the
sting of Chronic Wasting Disease (CWD) this
fall and winter.
Not necessarily by harvesting a CWDpositive
deer, but because CWD continues to
spread across Pennsylvania. More of the state
than ever now falls within the boundaries of a
Disease Management Area (DMA).
That brings consequences but also opportunity.
Hunters
looking to deal with the former and
take advantage of the latter should check out
the CWD section of the Game Commission website.
Visit www.pgc.pa.gov and search " CWD. "
That will, among other things, reveal DMA
boundaries. Those recently changed in three
cases.
Earlier this year, the Game Commission
created DMA 7 in response to the detection of
a CWD-positive deer at a captive deer facility
in Lycoming County. Encompassing 460 square
miles, DMA 7 includes portions of Lycoming,
Northumberland, Montour, Columbia and
Sullivan counties.
Two existing DMAs expanded.
DMA 4, which includes portions of Berks,
Lancaster, and Lebanon counties, grew after
a third captive facility there produced a CWDpositive
deer. That expansion follows the
Susquehanna River south to the Maryland
border and Octoraro Creek north to where it
meets the previous boundary.
DMA 2, meanwhile - by far Pennsylvania's
largest at 8,074 square miles - expanded
northeast, following the West Branch Susquehanna
River to Lewisburg and west on Route
45 to meet the previous boundary, and north
to Interstate 99/Route 322, to include the
Rothrock State Forest and State College areas.
Those changes resulted from CWD detections
in wild and captive deer.
DMA 2 includes all or parts of Adams, Bedford,
Blair, Cambria, Centre, Clearfield, Cumberland,
Dauphin, Franklin, Fulton, Huntingdon,
Indiana, Juniata, Mifflin, Northumberland,
Perry, Snyder, Somerset, Union and Westmoreland
counties.
Hunting within a DMA - and the Established
Area (EA) - means complying with special rules
meant to slow CWD's spread.
Feeding or rehabilitating wild cervids is
illegal, as is using natural cervid-based urine
SEPTEMBER 2022
Disease Management Areas (DMAs) are
created and expanded as warranted
based on new CWD detections. Because
CWD sampling occurs year-round in
Pennsylvania, the DMAs described here
could change at any time and might have
already. Visit www.arcg.is/1G4TLr for the
most up-to-date boundary descriptions.
attractants. So, too, is moving " high-risk " parts
beyond DMA and EA boundaries.
High-risk parts are the head (including brain,
tonsils, eyes and any lymph nodes); spinal cord/
backbone; spleen; skull plate with attached
antlers and/or cape, if visible brain or spinal
cord tissue is present; upper canine teeth, if
root structure or other soft tissue is present;
any object or article containing visible brain
or spinal cord tissue; unfinished taxidermy
mounts; and brain-tanned hides.
The opportunity in all that is the chance for
hunters to harvest additional deer.
Andrea Korman, the Game Commission's
CWD Section Supervisor, said lowering deer
numbers is the best way to keep CWD from
getting established in a population. To achieve
that using hunting, the Game Commission offers
CWD Deer Management Assistance Program
(DMAP) permits in high-priority areas. Hunters
can purchase up to two additional antlerless
permits for each of those locations.
There were 10 CWD DMAP areas across
Pennsylvania last year. An 11th, tied to DMA
7, is coming this fall, at a minimum, said Jeannine
Fleegle. Hunters who take a deer in any
of those are encouraged to submit its head for
CWD testing.
" The intent is to test 250-300 hunterharvested
deer from each CWD DMAP area for
a five-year period, " Fleegle said.
The information that provides is critical.
" Sampling is the only way to detect CWD, "
Fleegle said. " By testing in DMAs, we monitor
where the disease is present and if its frequency
is increasing. That's valuable information we
use to adjust management actions, such as
increasing harvest, adjusting DMA boundaries
and targeting outreach needs. "
7
http://www.arcg.is/1G4TLr http://www.pgc.pa.gov
Pennsylvania Game News - September 2022

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