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Alaska has not found CWD, and tests deer to keep checking

Alaska CWD Testing and Deer Carcass Rules

Alaska has never had CWD, nothing is required of a hunter here beyond reporting a sick animal, and the agency tells anyone hunting out of state to bone the meat out and leave the head behind rather than carry an unprocessed carcass home.

Not required
Is a sample required
a test is offered on any deer
Boned out
Carrying a carcass in
No whole carcass from anywhere
See the agency
What the test costs
no turnaround published
Not reported
Found in wild deer
no zone drawn
The answer

Is CWD testing required in Alaska

Voluntary, offered statewide

Alaska reports no detection in wild deer, and Alaska Department of Fish and Game sets no requirement to submit a sample. A test is offered on any deer a hunter brings in.

How to submit
Alaska Department of Fish and Game names report the animal to the nearest ADF&G office, email the department wildlife veterinarians and call the Wildlife Disease Surveillance reporting hotline.

ADF&G’s drop off locationsLook up a result

However, Alaska currently maintains a general targeted diseae surveillance program that will test for CWD in clinical, suspect cases in moose, caribou, deer or elk.
Chronic Wasting Disease Monitoring in Alaska, Alaska Department of Fish and Game, read September 23, 2026. Read it at the source
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Driving a deer into Alaska

What may be carried across the Alaska line

This is the rule a hunter is most likely to miss, because it is written by the state being entered rather than the state the animal was taken in. Reading the regulations of the state hunted in cover to cover does not surface it. Nationally, 42 of the 50 states restrict what crosses and 27 refuse an intact carcass from anywhere at all.

No whole carcass from anywhereA hunter driving home to this state boned the animal out before the line, whatever state the hunt was in.

An intact carcass may not be carried into Alaska from any other state. The parts ADF&G does admit are listed below.

The agency tells anyone hunting outside Alaska to bone out the carcass, clean all brain matter off skulls and antlers before transporting them, and not to bring an unprocessed carcass or head of a deer, elk or moose into the state.

What ADF&G admits, in its own categories:

  • boned out meat
  • skulls and antlers cleaned of all brain matter
Do NOT bring unprocessed carcasses or heads from deer, elk or moose into Alaska.
Chronic Wasting Disease Monitoring in Alaska, Alaska Department of Fish and Game, read September 23, 2026. Read it at the source
Where the state stands

CWD in Alaska: status, zones and baiting

Alaska Department of Fish and Game reports no detection of the disease in Alaska's wild deer herd.

Carcass waste
The agency tells a hunter working outside Alaska to leave the brain, spinal cord, eyes, spleen, lymph nodes and other inedible parts where the animal was taken.
To date, CWD has NOT been detected in free ranging Alaska wildlife.
2026-2027 Alaska Hunting Regulations, Alaska Department of Fish and Game, read September 23, 2026. Read it at the source

Alaska draws no management or surveillance zone, which means its rules apply the same way in every county. Several states added a first zone within a season of a first detection, so a zone boundary is the part of a state's rules most likely to change.

A green steel dumpster stencilled DEER CARCASS mounted on a single axle trailer in a sandy pine clearing, with a hoist gantry beside it and a pile of soil behind
The disposal end of the same trip, parked in a pine flatwood with a gantry to hang a deer from. Forty one states publish a rule about what happens to the bones and the head after the meat comes off, and in most of them it reads the same way: landfill, or back on the property where the deer was taken, and nowhere else. It is the part of the law that applies whether or not anybody ever asks for a test. “Deer carcass disposal”, The Bushranger, CC BY-SA 4.0

Alaska CWD questions

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CWD rules in other states

CWD rules in every stateHow the 50 states differ on sampling, cost and what crosses a state line.Venomous snakes by stateWhich species a state actually has, and where the range maps put them.Burn permits by stateWhether a permit is needed today, and who issues it.Firewood permitsWhat a cord off public land costs, and which forests still sell one.Alaska tick activityThe weather driven tick index for Alaska, updated daily.

Alaska read September 23, 2026 from 2026-2027 Alaska Hunting Regulations, Alaska Department of Fish and Game, linked above. Carcass rules, zone boundaries and sampling requirements change between one season’s regulations and the next, and a state can add a rule mid season after a new detection, so the ADF&G document linked above is the one that governs. Every state is on the CWD testing hub.