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Georgia has found CWD and tests any deer a hunter brings in

Georgia CWD Testing and Deer Carcass Rules

Testing in Georgia is free and encouraged rather than required, even inside the four county management area, but carcass disposal is now required statewide and a deer carcass from another state may only come in as meat and cleaned parts.

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
turnaround below
Yes, 2025
Found in wild deer
CWD Management Area
The answer

Is CWD testing required in Georgia

Voluntary, offered statewide

Georgia has found the disease in wild deer, and Georgia Department of Natural Resources Wildlife Resources Division sets no requirement to submit a sample. A test is offered on any deer a hunter brings in.

How to submit
Georgia Department of Natural Resources Wildlife Resources Division names participating deer processors, taxidermists and self-serve CWD sampling site.
What it costs
Georgia Department of Natural Resources Wildlife Resources Division puts the test at no charge to the hunter.
How long results take
the agency says two to six weeks for a deer from the management area and months for a deer from elsewhere in the state, and that it contacts the hunter directly only if the deer is positive
The zone it draws
CWD Management Area

DNR’s drop off locationsLook up a result

If you hunt inside the CMA (Atkinson, Berrien, Lanier and Lowndes counties), testing is strongly encouraged.
Testing Information: Chronic Wasting Disease, Georgia Department of Natural Resources Wildlife Resources Division, read September 23, 2026. Read it at the source
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Driving a deer into Georgia

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

A deer carcass may not be brought into Georgia from another state except as boned out meat, hides, a cleaned skull or skull cap with antlers, a jawbone with no soft tissue, elk ivories or a finished mount, and everything else must be left behind.

What DNR admits, in its own categories:

  • boned-out meat
  • hides
  • skulls or skull caps with antlers attached and all soft tissue removed
  • jawbones with no soft tissue
  • elk ivories
  • finished taxidermy mounts
Those who hunt out of state may only bring home a) boned-out meat, hides, skulls or skull caps with antlers attached and all soft tissue removed (velvet antlers are okay), b) jawbones with no soft tissue, c) elk ivories, and d) finished taxidermy mounts.
CWD in Georgia: What To Know, Georgia Department of Natural Resources Wildlife Resources Division, read September 23, 2026. Read it at the source

O.C.G.A. 27-5-2.1

What DNR says

The Georgia agency’s own words on the meat

Georgia Department of Natural Resources Wildlife Resources Division publishes this:

CWD has not been shown to infect people, but the CDC recommends not consuming deer that test positive for CWD.
Testing Information: Chronic Wasting Disease, Georgia Department of Natural Resources Wildlife Resources Division, read September 23, 2026. Read it at the source

That sentence is reproduced whole and unedited because it is the agency’s statement rather than a summary of one, and 30 of the 50 states here publish one of their own. The wording differs between states.

Where the state stands

CWD in Georgia: status, zones and baiting

Georgia Department of Natural Resources Wildlife Resources Division has confirmed the disease in Georgia's wild deer. The first confirmed case dates to 2025. The agency names four counties in the south of the state as its CWD Management Area, drawn as the county of the positive plus any county touching a five mile radius around it.

First confirmed case
2025
Baiting and feeding
No baiting or feeding ban published
Carcass waste
Carcass disposal is required statewide of hunters, processors and taxidermists, and the allowed ways are leaving the parts where the deer was killed, a commercial processor, a permitted landfill or household garbage, or deep burial or incineration.
Chronic Wasting Disease (CWD) was initially discovered in Georgia in January 2025.
Chronic Wasting Disease (CWD), Georgia Department of Natural Resources Wildlife Resources Division, read September 23, 2026. Read it at the source

Zone boundaries are redrawn between seasons more often than any other rule here, usually after a new detection near an existing line. The map linked above is DNR's own and is the one that governs.

A small white steel shelter on a gravel pad with one open bay and a sign reading LDWF CWD TESTING CONTAINER SITE beside a deer silhouette, bare trees behind it at dusk
A freezer container site, open at the side and lit at night. A state that wants samples from a whole parish cannot staff a counter for three months, so it buys a cooler and a sign and takes the head whenever the hunter finishes. The tag in the box is the part that matters: everything the lab can tell a hunter later depends on the paper that went in with the head. “LDWF CWD Testing Container Site 01”, Ktkvtsh, CC BY 4.0

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

Georgia read September 23, 2026 from Chronic Wasting Disease (CWD), Georgia Department of Natural Resources Wildlife Resources Division, 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 DNR document linked above is the one that governs. Every state is on the CWD testing hub.