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Maryland has found CWD, and files sampling under its own terms

Maryland CWD Testing and Deer Carcass Rules

Maryland does not require a hunter to have a deer tested, but a whole carcass may not leave the seven county management area or come in from another state's CWD area, and only a named list of deboned and cleaned parts may travel.

Not required
Is a sample required
no standing collection published
Restricted
Carrying a carcass in
No whole carcass from an affected state
See the agency
What the test costs
turnaround below
Yes, 2010
Found in wild deer
Chronic Wasting Disease Management Area
The answer

Is CWD testing required in Maryland

No mandatory sampling published

Maryland Department of Natural Resources, Wildlife and Heritage Service publishes neither a sampling requirement nor a standing collection programme for a hunter's own deer, and handles the disease through reporting and the rules on what may be carried across the state line.

How to submit
Maryland Department of Natural Resources, Wildlife and Heritage Service takes submissions through the route set out on its own sampling page.
How long results take
The department says the testing takes several months.
The zone it draws
Chronic Wasting Disease Management Area

Sampling is conducted on road-kills and deer brought by hunters to cooperating deer processors.
Chronic Wasting Disease (CWD) In Maryland, Maryland Department of Natural Resources, read September 23, 2026. Read it at the source
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Driving a deer into Maryland

What may be carried across the Maryland 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 an affected stateWhether the drive is legal turns on where the animal was taken rather than on how it was packed.

An intact carcass may not be carried into Maryland from a state or province where the disease has been found. An animal from anywhere else falls outside the rule.

A whole carcass may not be brought into Maryland from another state or province's designated CWD containment, surveillance or management area, and only the eight listed low risk parts may come in, unless the carcass is going to the Maryland management area or to a CWD approved Maryland processor or taxidermist.

What DNR admits, in its own categories:

  • meat with no part of the spinal column or head attached
  • hind quarters and front shoulders with no spinal column or backbone attached
  • meat without backbone
  • cleaned hide with no head attached
  • skull plate cleaned of all meat and brain tissue
  • antlers with no meat or soft tissue attached
  • upper canine teeth, also known as buglers, whistlers, or ivories
  • finished taxidermy mounts or tanned hides
A person may bring only the following parts of a dead deer, elk, or moose into Maryland from another state or province’s designated CWD containment, surveillance, or management area, unless the final destination of the carcass is within the Maryland Chronic Wasting Disease Management Area or with a chronic wasting disease-approved Maryland processor or taxidermist: (1) meat with no part of the spinal column or head attached; (2) hind quarters and front shoulders with no spinal column or backbone attached; (3) meat without backbone; (4) cleaned hide with no head attached; (5) skull plate cleaned of all meat and brain tissue; (6) antlers with no meat or soft tissue attached; (7) upper canine teeth, also known as buglers, whistlers, or ivories; and (8) finished taxidermy mounts or tanned hides.
Chronic Wasting Disease (CWD) In Maryland, Maryland Department of Natural Resources, read September 23, 2026. Read it at the source
Where the state stands

CWD in Maryland: status, zones and baiting

Maryland Department of Natural Resources, Wildlife and Heritage Service has confirmed the disease in Maryland's wild deer. The first confirmed case dates to 2010. The department says 354 infected deer have been documented and that it maintains a management area covering the seven counties where the disease has been detected..

First confirmed case
2010
Baiting and feeding
No baiting or feeding ban published
Moving an animal out of a zone
A whole carcass may not leave the management area unless it goes straight to an approved processor or taxidermist or to a landfill inside those counties, and a hunter must check the deer in and get a confirmation number before moving deboned meat or quarters out.
Carcass waste
The department no longer provides dumpsters and asks hunters to bag carcass remains for a landfill, quarter the deer in the field where that is allowed, or take it to an approved processor or taxidermist.
The disease was detected for the first time in Maryland from a deer taken by a hunter in November 2010, in Allegany County.
Chronic Wasting Disease (CWD) In Maryland, Maryland Department of Natural Resources, 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

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

Maryland read September 23, 2026 from Chronic Wasting Disease (CWD) In Maryland, Maryland Department of Natural Resources, 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.