COLUMBIA, S.C. — (AP) — As deer season opens up this year, South Carolina game officials are warning hunters: keep chronic wasting disease out of the state.
The South Carolina Department of Natural Resources reminds hunters not to import certain carcass parts of white-tailed deer, mule deer, moose and elk harvested from places where confirmed cases of the contagious disease have occurred.
The fatal neurological disease afflicting members of the deer family has been found in 26 U.S. states — but not South Carolina.
To keep it that way, game officials are maintaining restrictions to prevent certain deer parts from being imported from those states.
The Department of Natural Resources has tested more than 6,000 deer for the disease since 2002, with samples from all 46 counties.
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