With some deer hunting seasons continuing in Iowa, Greene County hunters are urged to help the Iowa Department of Natural Resources with an ongoing effort.

DNR Conservation Officer Aaron Arthur says since Greene County had its first case of Chronic Wasting Disease (CWD) during the 2021-22 hunting season, the DNR is continuing to monitor the situation. Chronic Wasting Disease is a neurological disease that attacks the brain of an infected deer and causes that animal to lose weight, display abnormal behavior, lose body functions and die. Arthur is asking for hunters to bring samples of their harvested deer to two orange freezer locations within Greene County, including the Milwaukee Depot and Spring Lake Park.

“These are only for deer harvested in Greene County, stress only for Greene County and that’s what these freezers are for. Because we’ve had issues with people that live in Greene County that go out somewhere else, harvest a deer and they think that’s where they need to put it. So these are for only Greene County deer because they’re trying to get extra samples to see if this is a problem in the area.”     

Arthur notes that the DNR wants 300 samples of deer and they are up to 60 so far. Arthur says they only want adult deer samples.