South Carolina has not found CWD, and its rules are written around keeping it out

South Carolina CWD Testing and Deer Carcass Rules

South Carolina has no CWD in its deer and asks nothing of a hunter who kills one here, but a carcass from a state where the disease has been found may only cross the line as meat off the bone and cleaned parts, and natural deer urine attractants are banned outright.

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

no turnaround published

Not reported

Found in wild deer

no zone drawn

The answer

Is CWD testing required in South Carolina

No mandatory sampling published

South Carolina Department of Natural Resources 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: South Carolina Department of Natural Resources takes submissions through the route set out on its own sampling page.

Beginning in 2023 active surveillance was resumed with SCDNR contracting with numerous taxidermists around the state to collect samples for testing based on a risk assessment disease model created by the Cornell Wildlife Health Lab.

Chronic Wasting Disease (CWD), South Carolina Department of Natural Resources, read September 23, 2026. Read it at the source

Driving a deer into South Carolina

What may be carried across the South Carolina 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 South Carolina from a state or province where the disease has been found. An animal from anywhere else falls outside the rule.

A whole carcass or carcass part from a state where CWD has been found may not be brought into or possessed in South Carolina except as meat off the bone, a hide with no head, a cleaned skull plate or antlers, clean upper canine teeth or a finished mount.

What SCDNR admits, in its own categories:

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
clean skulls or skull plates with antlers attached
antlers detached from the skull plate
clean upper canine teeth
finished taxidermy heads

No person may import or possess a whole cervid carcass or carcass part from an infected state except the following may be imported: 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; clean (no meat or tissue attached) skulls or skull plates with antlers attached; antlers (detached from the skull plate); clean upper canine teeth, also called “buglers,” “whistlers” or “ivories;” and finished taxidermy heads.

South Carolina Hunting & Fishing Laws and Regulations Guide, August 14, 2026 to August 14, 2027, South Carolina Department of Natural Resources, read September 23, 2026. Read it at the source

Reg. 123-54

What SCDNR says

The South Carolina agency’s own words on the meat

South Carolina Department of Natural Resources publishes this:

Therefore, the current recommendation from the World Health Organization (WHO) and the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) is that humans should not consume meat from known infected animals.

Chronic Wasting Disease (CWD), South Carolina Department of Natural Resources, 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 South Carolina: status, zones and baiting

South Carolina Department of Natural Resources reports no detection of the disease in South Carolina's wild deer herd.

Chronic Wasting Disease has NOT been detected anywhere in South Carolina.

Chronic Wasting Disease (CWD), South Carolina Department of Natural Resources, read September 23, 2026. Read it at the source

South Carolina 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

South Carolina CWD questions

Is CWD testing required in South Carolina?

Where can a hunter get a deer tested for CWD in South Carolina?

Can a deer be brought into South Carolina from another state?

An intact carcass may not be carried into South Carolina from a state or province where the disease has been found. An animal from anywhere else falls outside the rule. A whole carcass or carcass part from a state where CWD has been found may not be brought into or possessed in South Carolina except as meat off the bone, a hide with no head, a cleaned skull plate or antlers, clean upper canine teeth or a finished mount.

What parts of a deer may be brought into South Carolina?

South Carolina Department of Natural Resources admits 7 categories: 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; clean skulls or skull plates with antlers attached; antlers detached from the skull plate; clean upper canine teeth; finished taxidermy heads. The list is the state's own and nothing outside it crosses the line.

Does South Carolina have chronic wasting disease?

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.South Carolina tick activityThe weather driven tick index for South Carolina, updated daily.

South Carolina read September 23, 2026 from Chronic Wasting Disease (CWD), South Carolina 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 SCDNR document linked above is the one that governs. Every state is on the CWD testing hub.