IDNR Debuts Statewide Chronic Wasting Disease Test Result Notification System

SPRINGFIELD – The Illinois Department of Natural Resources (IDNR) will use a new automated notification system to relay chronic wasting disease (CWD) test results to deer hunters starting with the current 2025-2026 deer season.

Hunters who harvest deer across the 25-county CWD endemic area of northern and west-central Illinois are encouraged to have their deer tested by IDNR biologists at mandatory or voluntary firearm deer check stations, at participating vendors, or by dropping deer heads at self-serve drop-off sites.

Hunters statewide who provide a mobile phone number with their CWD sample and have a valid email address linked to their ExploreMoreIL customer account will receive text and email notifications of test results. Notifications to hunters who harvest deer testing presumptive positive for CWD will include a link to an interactive mapping application to verify the location of where they harvested their deer. Final confirmation test results will be sent via text only if further testing changes the initial test result.

The check CWD test results website is still available to hunters to review test results regardless of whether they receive text or email notifications. Hunters may also submit inquiries via email to DNR.CWDQuestions@illinois.gov.

If a hunter with a CWD-positive deer has not verified their township range selection (TRS) location after 15 days, an IDNR biologist will attempt to contact them via phone to confirm. Hunters who fail to provide the TRS of harvest may be ineligible to receive complimentary replacement tags for the following annual deer season.

Chronic wasting disease is a fatal disease of the central nervous system in deer and elk. CWD was first detected in a suspect adult female deer from northwest Boone County in 2002. Since then, 185,896 wild deer have been sampled statewide, and 2,748 individual deer tested positive for CWD.

Between July 1, 2024 and June 30, 2025, IDNR's Wildlife Disease Program identified 539 CWD-positive deer in 25 Illinois counties, including Adams, Boone, Bureau, Carroll, Cook, DeKalb, DuPage, Ford, Grundy, Jo Daviess, Kane, Kankakee, Kendall, Lake, LaSalle, Lee, Livingston, Marshall, McHenry, Ogle, Peoria, Putnam, Stephenson, Will and Winnebago.

For more information about CWD management in Illinois, visit IDNR’s CWD management website.

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