Monitoring chronic wasting disease

We are continuing our surveillance measures to monitor wildlife for chronic wasting disease.

If you observe these signs in a wild cervid (member of the deer family), contact your local ministry work centre or email CWD@ontario.ca.

Attractants and lures

  • Use artificial or plant-based products.
  • Don’t use attractants or lures made from cervids. They may contain infectious material and could introduce chronic wasting disease to Ontario.

Attractants and lures made from cervids are illegal to have and use in Ontario.

Contact your local ministry work centre for more information.

Restrictions on importing and moving live cervids

Effective January 1, 2021:

  • The import of all species of live captive cervids into Ontario is prohibited, unless authorized by a ministry-issued permit. This includes importing from other provinces, states or territories.
  • The movement and transportation of live captive cervids between points within Ontario is prohibited, unless authorized by a ministry-issued permit.

Learn about applying for a permit to import or move live captive cervids.

Any escape or release of captive deer or elk must be immediately reported to us. The owner of escaped captive deer and elk may be liable for all costs incurred by the ministry to recover or remove the animals.

Hunting cervids outside of Ontario

Stay up to date on the latest hunting regulations. Detailed regulations related to transporting animal body parts are in Section 4 of Ontario Regulation 666/98.

New regulations came into effect January 1, 2021 to help reduce the risk of CWD coming into Ontario through imported cervid body parts hunted in other provinces, states or territories.

If you hunt cervids out of province, you can only bring back to Ontario:

  • butchered, deboned and packaged meat
  • a cleaned skull plate and antlers
  • tanned hides and capes
  • finished taxidermy mounts

It’s illegal to bring any other body parts from deer species into Ontario. These rules apply to all members of the deer family, or cervids, which comprise more than 37 species.

All imported parts must be clean of all other tissue and labelled with the:

  • species name
  • name and address of the owner
  • location where the imported parts came from

Any unwanted parts must be disposed of at a facility authorized to receive animal waste or parts.

Hunters who have any part of a cervid that was transported into Ontario, and has also tested positive for CWD, must:

  • let us know by calling or emailing your local ministry work centre, or by emailing CWD@ontario.ca
  • dispose of the parts according to the ministry’s direction

Rules for non-resident transport

Non-residents of Ontario may temporarily import raw hides, antlers, teeth, skulls, unprocessed meat and skin of the head from deer species through Ontario if the:

  • parts are in temporary transit through Ontario enroute to another province or state
  • parts are kept in a sealed container from which nothing can escape
  • container is labelled with the species, name and address of the owner
  • container is labeled with the location where the imported parts came from