HARRISBURG, PA — The Pennsylvania Game Commission for the 2013-14 seasons has removed the requirement for successful hunters within a Disease Management Area to take their harvests to a check station where samples can be collected for disease testing. Instead, the game commission will use other methods to determine how prevalent the disease might be in areas where it has been found.

The changes correspond with changing circumstances in Pennsylvania regarding chronic wasting disease (CWD), which is always fatal to deer, elk and moose, but that is not known to be transmitted to humans.

Positive CWD test results have been returned in relation to three free-ranging deer harvested by hunters in Blair and Bedford counties. And now that CWD has been found among some of the state’s free-ranging deer, the Game Commission must focus on managing the disease rather than trying to prevent it, said Calvin DuBrock, director of the Game Commission’s Bureau of Wildlife Management.