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October 1, 2007
In an ongoing and continued effort to prevent Chronic Wasting Disease (CWD)
from infecting North Carolina’s resident deer population, the N.C. Wildlife
Resources Commission is reminding hunters to use extreme caution in
importing out-of-state harvests.
Currently, there is no reported incidence of CWD in North Carolina. The
Commission needs hunter cooperation to help prevent this dangerous disease
from infiltrating the state’s deer population.
“This is a devastating, always fatal disease, and this warning is another
precaution the Commission has taken to minimize the chances of CWD entering
the state and becoming established in North Carolina,” said Evin Stanford,
the Commission’s deer biologist.
According to state law enacted in early 2006, it is illegal to import the
carcass or carcass parts of a cervid – meaning any member of the deer
family, such as white-tailed deer, mule deer, elk or moose - from any state
or province where CWD occurs unless specific precautions are taken.
The purpose of this law is to prevent potentially dangerous, infective
tissues, such as the brain, spinal chord and nervous system tissues, from
entering the Tar Heel state. Legal implications most often arise when a
hunter brings an out-of-state carcass to a North Carolina processing
facility for butchering or tries to deliver an out-of-state cervid to a
North Carolina taxidermist.
However, there are safe, legal methods for hunters to import a harvest,
even when taken from a location with documented cases of CWD.
A carcass or carcass part may be transported if it is:
- Cut and wrapped
- Meat that has been boned out
- Caped hides
- Cleaned skull plates
- In quarters or portions of meat with no part of the spinal column or
head attached
- Antlers
- Cleaned teeth
- A finished taxidermy product
Additional restrictions that apply to cervid carcasses, carcass parts or
processed meat packages entering the state of North Carolina include
labeling with the following:
- Hunter's name and address
- State or province of origin
- Date of harvest and the hunter's hunting license number from the
state of origin
- Destination of the package
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