With more deer hunting seasons happening in Iowa, the Department of Natural Resources is continuing its effort to monitor one disease in Greene County.

Conservation Officer for Greene County Aron Arthur says they are encouraging hunters to drop off deer head samples for testing for Chronic Wasting Disease. He says one positive case was found three years ago in Greene County, and this illness is a neurological disease that attacks a deer’s brain and causes weight loss, abnormal behavior, loss of body functions and eventually ends in death. Arthur points out there is a bright orange freezer located at Spring Lake Park to drop off a sample. He talks about what the DNR is wanting for a viable sample.

“It’s got to be a mature deer, it can’t be a yearling, it’s got to be a mature deer over two years (old). Because they found out it doesn’t work testing on the juveniles. So if you have a deer, you’ve butchered it, all we need is the head, but you need to cut a little bit below the neck because they take a little gland out from underneath the neck.” 

Arthur adds that there have been zero cases in Greene County since the positive CWD from three years ago. However, he emphasizes that last year Guthrie County experienced its first positive CWD deer on a public hunting ground. He says if hunters do not want to drop off a sample to the freezer at Spring Lake Park, they can call him at 515-370-0422 and he will contact the right individual with the DNR to retrieve the sample.