Mandatory testing dates set in CWD management zone

Under Alabama’s Chronic Wasting Disease (CWD) Management Zone Regulation (220-2-.167), all deer harvested in the high-risk and the buffer zones of the state’s CWD Management Zone (CMZ) must be submitted for CWD testing during specific weekends of the 2026-2027 white-tailed deer season.
The high-risk zone contains all of Lauderdale and Colbert counties and part of Franklin County, extending north of State Highway 24 from the Alabama/Mississippi state line east to U.S. Highway 43. The buffer zone includes the remaining part of Franklin County south of Highway 24 and east of U.S. Highway 43.
High-risk zone mandatory sampling weekends will be November 21-22 (the first weekend of gun season), January 16-17 and February 6-7. 
Buffer zone mandatory sampling weekends will be January 16-17 and February 6-7.
Alternate dates, if needed to to weather or other circumstances, will be December 26-27 for the high-risk zone and January 23-24 for the high-risk and buffer zones.
Mandatory weekends for the high-risk zone and buffer zone correspond with peaks in Alabama’s deer harvest, the season’s opening weekend and the rut in northwest Alabama. Outside of those weekends, hunters are encouraged to voluntarily drop off samples for testing at the self-service freezers located in the appropriate CMZ zone.  In Franklin County, locations are Liberty Hill Deer Processing in Phil Campbell, Jaybird’s Taxidermy and Deer Processing in Russellville and Fancher’s Taxidermy and Deer Processing in Red Bay.
For the remainder of the state outside of the CMZ, hunters are also encouraged to voluntarily drop off samples for testing at self-service freezer locations. .Deer heads can be dropped off for sampling 24 hours a day, seven days a week at the Bankhead Ranger District Office in Double Springs, the Marion County Co-op in Hamilton, Van’s Sporting Goods in Cullman and Boldo Deer Processing in Jasper.
All deer harvested by hunters on certain public land in the CMZ are required to be sampled throughout the season. Those public lands include the Freedom Hills, Lauderdale, and Seven-Mile Island wildlife management areas (WMAs); the Cherokee Physically Disabled Hunting Area; and the Riverton Community Hunting Area.

As an incentive to increase CWD samples submitted for testing on scheduled mandatory testing dates, hunters who harvest a deer from within the CMZ and submit their harvest for CWD testing are eligible to receive a CWD Sampling Permit from ADCNR to harvest one additional antlered deer from within the CMZ for each sample submitted. CWD Sampling Permits are only available at WMA check stations and ADCNR mobile sampling locations. No more than two additional CWD Sampling Permits will be issued per hunter above the season bag limit for the High-Risk and Buffer zones. CWD Sampling Permits are non-transferable.
Transporting deer carcasses out of the management zone can potentially spread CWD to currently unaffected areas. As a result, carcass restrictions are in place under the CWD regulation that prohibit the transport of harvested deer from the CMZ to areas outside the Buffer or High-Risk zones. Deer harvested within the High-Risk Zone must remain and be disposed of within the High-Risk Zone. Deer harvested within the Buffer Zone must remain and be disposed of within the CMZ. Deboned meat, cleaned skull plates, and raw hides with no visible brain or spinal cord tissue may be taken outside of these zones.
Hunting license and Game Check requirements apply to all white-tailed deer harvests statewide.
CWD is a contagious neurological disease of white-tailed deer and other deer species. It belongs to a group of diseases known as transmissible spongiform encephalopathies. The disease is caused by a mutated protein called a prion. It is always fatal for white-tailed deer. The first case of CWD in Alabama’s deer herd was detected in Lauderdale County in January, 2022.
For more information about CWD in Alabama, visit www.outdooralabama.com/cwd-info.