Springfield, IL (WAND) – The Illinois Department of Natural Resources (IDNR) will debut an automated notification system to relay Chronic Wasting Disease (CWD) test results to deer hunters statewide.
Chronic wasting disease is a fatal disease in the central nervous system of deer and elk.
Starting with the current 2025-26 deer season, hunters throughout Illinois who provide a phone number with their CWD sample and have an email address linked to their ExploreMoreIL accounts will receive text and email notifications of test results.
Notifications will be sent to hunters who harvest a CWD-positive deer including a link to a mapping system to verify the harvest location of the deer.
Hunters with a CWD-positive deer that have not verified their township range location after 15 days will be contacted by an IDNR biologist. Hunters who do not provide the harvest location may be ineligible to receive complementary replacement tags for the following annual deer season.
Between July 1, 2024 and June 30, 2025, over 500 deer have been identified as CWD-positive across 25 Illinois counties. Anyone harvesting deer in the endemic area is encouraged to have their deer tested for CWD.
