The Virginia Department of Wildlife Resources (DWR) says a deer killed last season in southwestern Montgomery County tested positive for Chronic Wasting Disease. The discovery was made by a taxidermist that participates in the state’s CWD surveillance program, and was confirmed by the department after additional testing and collection of DNA samples from the deer.
The deer marked the first case of CWD in southwest Virginia and triggered the creation of a new disease management area that includes Montgomery, Pulaski and Floyd counties.
For the 2021 season, a mandatory sampling day has been scheduled for November 13. All hunters who bag a deer in the new disease management area that day will be required to take the animal to a department check station for sampling.
The positive case brings the number of Virginia counties affected by CWD to 14. Until the Montgomery County case, CWD had been confined to 13 counties in the northern part of the state.
