Wildlife Officials Adopt Emergency Hunting Regulations in Attempt to Limit Spread of Chronic Wasting Disease

August 16, 2026

With the start of deer hunting season less than a month away, the Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Control (DNREC) has adopted emergency regulations to try to limit the spread of Chronic Wasting Disease (CWD).

The fatal illness was first confirmed in Delaware earlier this year in a deer harvested in lower, central Sussex County. CWD has been reported in animals in 37 states. Internationally, it has been reported in deer, elk, reindeer, and moose in Canada, Norway, Finland, and Sweden. Caused by a misfolded protein called a prion, there is a great deal about the illness that remains unknown.

Last month, DNREC worked with federal officials and local landowners to conduct a cluster sampling of 100 deer adjacent to the area where CWD was first detected. That effort did not reveal any additional presence of the disease.

The new emergency regulations – which relate to the area where CWD was found – are designed to reduce activities that bring deer together, limit the movement of potentially infected animals and infectious material, and increase CWD testing during the upcoming season. State and federal wildlife disease experts will continue CWD surveillance.

The new regulations, implemented as of today (August 17), do the following:

• Establish a CWD Management Zone (CMZ) that encompasses Wildlife Management Zones 14 and 16, including DNREC’s Midlands Wildlife Area and Trap Pond State Park, in lower Sussex County.

• Prohibit the use of bait and feed for attracting deer within the CMZ;

• Require hunters to check-in deer harvested within the CMZ during the November general firearm “shotgun” deer season (November 13-22) at two designated stations:

1. The Jones Crossroads Landfill near Georgetown.

2. The Gumboro Service Center, near where the Whitetail Open takes place.

• Define requirements for hunters moving harvested deer out of the CMZ elsewhere within the state.

• Prohibit the rehabilitation and relocation of “rescued” deer fawns originating within the Sussex County CMZ, and

• Place a statewide ban on the use of natural urine-based “buck lures” to hunt deer. (The prions that cause the disease are shed in bodily fluids and can be transmitted from direct contact or by deer browsing vegetation in CWD-tainted soil.)

Hunters interested in having their deer tested during the hunting season will be able to do so at self-serve drop-off locations located throughout the state. More details for this service, to be provided at no cost to hunters, will be available on the DNREC website prior to the start of the season.

Before the season begins, the Division of Fish and Wildlife will distribute an addendum to the 2026 Delaware Hunting and Trapping Guide with expanded information about CWD. This pamphlet will be available when hunters pick up their guide in hard copy and also will be found on the CWD webpage at: de.gov/cwd