North Carolina deer hunters will see several changes this fall as wildlife officials step up efforts to slow the spread of Chronic Wasting Disease, also known as CWD.<\/p>\n
The N.C. Wildlife Resources Commission announced new hunting regulations for the 2026-27 deer season that give hunters more opportunities to harvest deer in areas where the disease has been confirmed.<\/p>\n
One of the biggest changes is a new special early season for antlered deer on Aug. 22-23 in CWD management areas, including Sampson and Cumberland counties. Hunters in the northwestern CWD management area will also see earlier blackpowder and gun seasons.<\/p>\n
The agency has also changed its rules for disposing of deer carcasses. Hunters across the state must now properly dispose of non-edible deer parts by taking them to a lined landfill, burying them at least three feet underground and away from water, or leaving them within the county where the deer was harvested.<\/p>\n
Beginning July 1, landowners and hunters in CWD management and surveillance areas can also apply for additional deer harvest tags through the state’s CWD Management Assistance Program.<\/p>\n
Wildlife officials say the changes are designed to slow the spread of the disease while keeping hunting opportunities available.<\/p>\n
Since Chronic Wasting Disease was first detected in North Carolina in 2022, nearly 100,000 deer have been tested. The disease has now been confirmed in seven counties.<\/p>\n
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, there have been no reported cases of CWD infecting people. However, the CDC recommends hunters do not eat meat from a deer that tests positive for the disease.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"North Carolina deer hunters will see several changes this fall as wildlife officials step up efforts to slow…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":727765,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[51],"tags":[79,201],"class_list":["post-727764","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-wildlife","tag-science","tag-wildlife"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/727764","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=727764"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/727764\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/727765"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=727764"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=727764"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=727764"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}