North Dakota CWD Testing and Deer Carcass Rules

Q: Is baiting deer legal in North Dakota?

Banned inside the zones. Baiting big game is unlawful on Game and Fish Department Wildlife Management Areas, which is where the proclamation's ban falls rather than on the state as a whole.

Q: How does a hunter get CWD results in North Dakota?

North Dakota Game and Fish Department posts results to a lookup of its own, and game and Fish says a result takes about four weeks and arrives in the hunter's Game and Fish account inbox..

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

Found in wild deer

no zone drawn

The answer

Is CWD testing required in North Dakota

Voluntary, offered statewide

North Dakota has found the disease in wild deer, and North Dakota 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: North Dakota Game and Fish Department names collection site drop-off barrel or freezer, Game and Fish district office, the Wildlife Health Lab in Bismarck and mail-in CWD tissue sampling kit.
What it costs: North Dakota Game and Fish Department puts the test at no charge to the hunter.
How long results take: Game and Fish says a result takes about four weeks and arrives in the hunter's Game and Fish account inbox.

Game and Fish’s drop off locations Look up a result

If hunting in the current year's surveillance area, please get your animal tested.

About Chronic Wasting Disease, North Dakota Game and Fish, read September 23, 2026. Read it at the source

Driving a deer into North Dakota

What may be carried across the North Dakota 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 North Dakota from any other state. The parts Game and Fish does admit are listed below.

Nothing but the nine lower risk portions the proclamation lists may be brought into North Dakota from anywhere outside it, and a violation carries a two hundred dollar fee.

What Game and Fish admits, in its own categories:

meat that is cut and wrapped either commercially or privately
quarters or other portions of meat with no part of the spinal column or head attached
meat that has been boned out
hides with no heads attached
skull plates with antlers attached having no brain tissue present
intact skulls with no visible brain or spinal cord tissue present that has the eyes, lower jaw, tongue, salivary glands, tonsils, and lymph nodes removed
antlers separated from the skull plate
upper canine teeth, also known as “buglers”, “whistlers”, or “ivories”
finished taxidermy heads

It shall be unlawful to transport into North Dakota the whole carcass or carcass parts of: white-tailed deer, mule deer, moose, elk, or members of the cervid family harvested outside of North Dakota except the following lower-risk portions of the carcass:

2026-2027 Chronic Wasting Disease Proclamation, North Dakota Game and Fish, read September 23, 2026. Read it at the source

2026-2027 Chronic Wasting Disease Proclamation, Section 2, Carcass Transportation

Where the state stands

CWD in North Dakota: status, zones and baiting

North Dakota Game and Fish Department has confirmed the disease in North Dakota's wild deer. Game and Fish reports positives by deer gun unit rather than by county; for the 2025 season it names units 3A1, 3D2, 3E1, 3E2, 3F1, 3F2 and 2B, with 3D2 and 2B new that year..

Baiting and feeding: Banned inside the zones
Moving an animal out of a zone: North Dakota sets no CWD management zone; instead a statewide rule keyed to deer gun units says carcass waste from a deer, moose or elk killed in North Dakota must go to a landfill or waste hauler once it leaves the gun unit it came from.
Carcass waste: Carcass waste is best left at the kill site or sent to a landfill, and once it leaves its gun unit of origin the landfill or a waste hauler is the only lawful destination.

The Department confirmed 16 deer tested positive for CWD, all of which were taken by hunters.

CWD Testing Results, North Dakota Game and Fish, read September 23, 2026. Read it at the source

North Dakota 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

North Dakota CWD questions

Is CWD testing required in North Dakota?

Where can a hunter get a deer tested for CWD in North Dakota?

How much does a CWD test cost in North Dakota?

Can a deer be brought into North Dakota from another state?

What parts of a deer may be brought into North Dakota?

North Dakota Game and Fish Department admits 9 categories: meat that is cut and wrapped either commercially or privately; quarters or other portions of meat with no part of the spinal column or head attached; meat that has been boned out; hides with no heads attached; skull plates with antlers attached having no brain tissue present; intact skulls with no visible brain or spinal cord tissue present that has the eyes, lower jaw, tongue, salivary glands, tonsils, and lymph nodes removed; antlers separated from the skull plate; upper canine teeth, also known as “buglers”, “whistlers”, or “ivories”; finished taxidermy heads. The list is the state's own and nothing outside it crosses the line.

Does North Dakota have chronic wasting disease?

Is baiting deer legal in North Dakota?

How does a hunter get CWD results in North Dakota?

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.North Dakota tick activityThe weather driven tick index for North Dakota, updated daily.

North Dakota read September 23, 2026 from CWD Testing Results, North Dakota Game and Fish, 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 Game and Fish document linked above is the one that governs. Every state is on the CWD testing hub.