Carcass Importation Restrictions

Currently, 32 states have adopted regulations affecting the transportation of hunter-harvested cervids. In October 2005, the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission approved a carcass importation restriction to further increase Arkansas’s protection against chronic wasting disease.

One theoretical mode of disease transmission is through infected carcasses. Since the suspected infectous agent (prion) is  concentrated in the brain, spinal cord and lymph glands, it is important to keep these items from CWD-positive states out of Arkansas.

A cervid is any member of the Cervidae family, including white-tailed deer, elk, moose, red deer, sika deer, fallow deer, mule deer and caribou.

It is unlawful for hunters to import, transport or possess in Arkansas any portion other than boneless meat from a cervid carcass originating or taken from any captive facility or within any enclosure from any area that has a known case of chronic wasting disease (CWD). Deer or elk harvested in commercial wildlife hunting resorts in Arkansas may be transported or possessed providing that a Chronic Wasting Disease sample is collected.

The following U.S. states and Canadian provinces are CWD positive:

Alberta  •  Colorado  •  Kansas   •  Illinois   •  Minnesota*  •  Montana*   •  Nebraska  •  New Mexico  •  New York  •  Oklahoma*  •  Saskatchewan  •  South Dakota  •  Utah  •  West Virginia  •  Wisconsin  •  Wyoming 

*States and provinces where CWD has been found in captive cervids only. 

This list also includes any other state or province where a positive case of CWD has been detected as confirmed by United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) or Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA).

Hunters may bring the following items back into Arkansas: