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

Arizona CWD Testing and Deer Carcass Rules

Q: Is baiting deer legal in Arizona?

Baiting and feeding banned statewide. Edible or ingestible substances may not be used to aid in taking big game anywhere in Arizona, and water, salt and livestock salt products are the exceptions the rule names.

Arizona has never found CWD in its deer or elk, so testing is free and voluntary with no required submission anywhere in the state, but the import rule is strict: only the seven listed parts of a cervid taken outside Arizona may be brought in, and the brain, spinal column and guts must stay behind.

Not required

Is a sample required

a test is offered on any deer

Boned out

Carrying a carcass in

No whole carcass from anywhere

Free

What the test costs

no turnaround published

Not reported

Found in wild deer

no zone drawn

The answer

Is CWD testing required in Arizona

Voluntary, offered statewide

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

How to submit: Arizona Game and Fish Department names Department office by appointment, sample drop-off location, sample submission freezer and self collection after a workshop.
What it costs: Arizona Game and Fish Department puts the test at no charge to the hunter.

AZGFD’s drop off locations

You can also bring the head of a recently harvested deer or elk to any sample drop-off location or Arizona Game and Fish office between 8 a.m. and 5 p.m. Monday through Friday.

Chronic Wasting Disease: What Hunters Should Know, Arizona Game and Fish Department, read September 23, 2026. Read it at the source

Driving a deer into Arizona

What may be carried across the Arizona 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 Arizona from any other state. The parts AZGFD does admit are listed below.

Only the seven listed portions of a cervid taken in another state or country may be brought into Arizona, so no whole carcass and nothing carrying brain or spinal tissue may cross the state line.

What AZGFD admits, in its own categories:

Boneless portions of meat, or meat that has been cut and packaged either personally or commercially
Quarters or other portions of meat with no part of the head, brain tissue, or spinal column attached, except as required for proof of legality provided the cervid quarters and portions are being transported directly to a licensed meat processor located within this State
Clean hides and capes with no head, brain tissue, or spinal column attached, except as required for proof of legality
Clean skulls and skull plates with or without hard antlers with no brain tissue or spinal column attached, including antlers in the velvet stage provided they are attached to a clean skull or skull plate and are being transported directly to a licensed taxidermist located within this State
Finished taxidermy mounts or products
Upper canine teeth with no meat or tissue attached
Edible organs, such as heart, liver, and kidneys, that have been removed from the cervid’s body cavity

A person may possess, transport, or import only the following portions of a cervid lawfully taken in another state, country, or designated CWD Management Zone:

2026-2027 Arizona Hunting Regulations, page 102, Commission Rule R12-4-305, Arizona Game and Fish Department, read September 23, 2026. Read it at the source

R12-4-305

Where the state stands

CWD in Arizona: status, zones and baiting

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

Baiting and feeding: Baiting and feeding banned statewide
Carcass waste: Waste from imported cervid meat must be double bagged and sent to a landfill, while inedible parts of an animal taken in Arizona may be left where it was harvested.

Chronic wasting disease has not been detected in Arizona’s deer or elk, and the Arizona Game and Fish Department wants to do everything it can to keep it that way.

Chronic Wasting Disease: What Hunters Should Know, Arizona Game and Fish Department, read September 23, 2026. Read it at the source

Arizona 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

Arizona CWD questions

Is CWD testing required in Arizona?

Where can a hunter get a deer tested for CWD in Arizona?

How much does a CWD test cost in Arizona?

Can a deer be brought into Arizona from another state?

What parts of a deer may be brought into Arizona?

Arizona Game and Fish Department admits 7 categories: Boneless portions of meat, or meat that has been cut and packaged either personally or commercially; Quarters or other portions of meat with no part of the head, brain tissue, or spinal column attached, except as required for proof of legality provided the cervid quarters and portions are being transported directly to a licensed meat processor located within this State; Clean hides and capes with no head, brain tissue, or spinal column attached, except as required for proof of legality; Clean skulls and skull plates with or without hard antlers with no brain tissue or spinal column attached, including antlers in the velvet stage provided they are attached to a clean skull or skull plate and are being transported directly to a licensed taxidermist located within this State; Finished taxidermy mounts or products; Upper canine teeth with no meat or tissue attached; Edible organs, such as heart, liver, and kidneys, that have been removed from the cervid’s body cavity. The list is the state's own and nothing outside it crosses the line.

Does Arizona have chronic wasting disease?

Is baiting deer legal in Arizona?

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.Arizona tick activityThe weather driven tick index for Arizona, updated daily.

Arizona read September 23, 2026 from Chronic Wasting Disease: What Hunters Should Know, Arizona Game and Fish Department, 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 AZGFD document linked above is the one that governs. Every state is on the CWD testing hub.