Hunters are being asked to give up a little piece of their deer to help figure out if Chronic Wasting Disease is present in Ontario.

The disease – a fatal, untreatable brain disease that affects deer, elk, moose and caribou – hasn’t been found in Ontario but is present in 26 US states, Alberta, Saskatchewan and Quebec. It was found there in a deer farm close to the Ontario border.

The ministry will be doing surveillance in southwestern Ontario from October to December, canvasing the surveillance areas and visiting local hunters and hunt camps. They will ask the hunters permission to remove a small amount of tissue from the deer head for analysis. The sampling will not prevent huntres from consuming the meat or having the head mounted officials say.

Officials are asking bow and firearm hunters to take the head of deer within a few days of harvest to a depot including one at Farr Acres Enterprises in Courtright. Hunters will also to be asked where the deer was harvested.

In 2019, nearly 450 samples were taken but no disease was found.

In 13,000 animals harvested since 2002 have been disease free.