The regulatory tempo of a deer, elk or moose kill in eastern Washington now runs on a five-day clock. That clock is the state’s mandatory chronic wasting disease testing window for animals harvested in the 100-series game management units, and it stays in place for the 2026 seasons as a carryover of the rules adopted in 2025.
The requirement is straightforward and it is not new: animals taken in 100-series GMUs must be tested for CWD within five days of harvest, according to the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife’s reminder. Since 2024, WDFW has confirmed the disease in eight deer across Spokane and Pend Oreille counties, and the mandatory-testing rule was written in response.
CWD is a fatal neurological prion disease affecting deer, elk, moose and caribou, and there is no cure; testing tissue from an animal’s head is the only reliable way to detect it. That testing has options: hunter check stations open during weekends of the modern firearm deer season, self-service kiosks that accept a head or lymph nodes, WDFW offices in Spokane Valley and Walla Walla during posted hours, or a participating taxidermist in the agency’s Eastern Region. Kiosk and check-station coverage will not reach every community, so the agency warns hunters to plan for a drive.
The Washington rule is a snapshot of a much larger picture. Chronic wasting disease has been detected in 37 U.S. states and five Canadian provinces in free-ranging cervids and/or captive cervid facilities, according to USGS distribution data — a footprint that has grown almost every year since the mid-1990s. On the human side, the Centers for Disease Control reports that CWD has not been shown to infect people and no CWD infections in people have ever been reported, while continuing to recommend that hunters in affected areas have animals tested and not eat meat from an animal that tests positive.
Two other layers of the rulebook survive intact for 2026. Baiting deer, elk and moose is prohibited, on the reasoning that congregating animals increases opportunities for disease to spread. Whole carcasses may not be brought into Washington from other states, and whole carcasses from the 100-series GMUs may not be transported to other parts of Washington — meat must be deboned at the harvest site. CWD testing does not fulfill the state’s separate harvest-reporting requirement, and hunters still have to submit that report through the licensing system.
