Alabama Announces Mandatory Testing Dates for CWD Management Zone

Alabama hunters will be required to submit deer for CWD testing in the state’s CWD Management Zone. (Photo by J Edwards Photography)

Hunters must submit all deer harvested in Alabama’s High-Risk Zone and the Buffer Zone of the state’s CWD Management Zone (CMZ) for chronic wasting disease (CWD) testing during specific weekends of the 2025-26 deer season.

According to a release issued by Alabama Department of Conservation and Natural Resources, the mandatory sampling weekends in the High-Risk Zone of the CMZ are November 22-23, 2025; December 6-7, 2025; and January 17-18, 2026. The mandatory sampling weekends in the Buffer Zone of the CMZ are November 22-23, 2025, and January 17-18, 2026. The High-Risk Zone contains all of Lauderdale and Colbert counties and part of Franklin County, extending north of State Highway 24 from the Alabama/Mississippi state line east to U.S. Highway 43. The Buffer Zone includes the remaining part of Franklin County south of Highway 24 and east of U.S. Highway 43.

Mandatory weekends for the High-Risk Zone and Buffer Zone correspond with peaks in Alabama’s deer harvest, the season’s opening weekend and the rut in northwest Alabama. Outside of those weekends, hunters are encouraged to voluntarily drop off samples for testing at the self-service freezers located in the appropriate CMZ zone. For the remainder of the state outside of the CMZ, hunters are also encouraged to voluntarily drop off samples for testing at self-service freezer locations. Sampling locations throughout the state can be found at www.outdooralabama.com/cwd/cwd-zone-map.

All deer harvested by hunters on certain public land in the CMZ are required to be sampled throughout the season. Those public lands include the Freedom Hills, Lauderdale, and Seven-Mile Island wildlife management areas (WMAs); the Cherokee Physically Disabled Hunting Area; and the Riverton Community Hunting Area.

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As an incentive to increase CWD samples submitted for testing on scheduled mandatory testing dates, hunters who harvest a deer from within the CMZ and submit their harvest for CWD testing on the mandatory sampling dates of November 22-23, 2025, and January 17-18, 2026, are eligible to receive a CWD Sampling Permit from ADCNR to harvest one additional antlered deer from within the CMZ for each sample submitted. CWD Sampling Permits are only available at WMA check stations and ADCNR mobile sampling locations. No more than two additional CWD Sampling Permits will be issued per hunter above the season bag limit, combined for the High-Risk and Buffer zones. CWD Sampling Permits are non-transferable.

Carcass restrictions are in place under the CWD regulation that prohibit the transport of harvested deer from the CMZ to areas outside the Buffer or High-Risk zones. Deer harvested within the High-Risk Zone must remain and be disposed of within the High-Risk Zone. Deer harvested within the Buffer Zone must remain and be disposed of within the CMZ. Deboned meat, cleaned skull plates and raw hides with no visible brain or spinal cord tissue may be taken outside of these zones. Transporting deer carcasses out of the management zone can potentially spread CWD to currently unaffected areas.

For more information about CWD in Alabama, visit www.outdooralabama.com/cwd-info.