Official Update from the TPWD Wildlife Permit Office
Your Source for Timely, Accurate Deer Permit Information
Dear Texas
Deer Breeders,
Texas Parks
and Wildlife Department (TPWD) has just been notified by the United States
Department of Agriculture (USDA)/National Animal Health Laboratory Network
(NAHLN) of the requirements to accommodate TPWD’s policy on live animal testing
for CWD in approved laboratories. The
Texas A&M Veterinarian Medical Diagnostic Laboratory (TVMDL) will be the
only approved diagnostic laboratory in the US currently authorized to conduct
this live animal testing. All samples for live animal testing for CWD
must be submitted through TVMDL. The USDA/NAHLN is working with
additional NAHLN laboratories for authorization to conduct live animal testing.
As additional labs become authorized, TVMDL will forward samples to those
labs as needed to handle the work load. Please note that testing of live
animals for CWD is currently not an officially approved test under the USDA’s
CWD program; therefore, these results cannot be used to qualify animals for
interstate movement or to meet the USDA Herd Certification Program
requirements.
Please also
note that as of August 15, 2016, test results for any breeder deer samples sent
to TVMDL for CWD testing will be uploaded to TWIMS via an automated routine. To ensure that your CWD test results are efficiently
processed by both TVMDL and TPWD, please ensure that any accession forms sent
to TVMDL between now and August 15, 2016 clearly reference the unique number
for each deer being tested. If the test
submitted to TVMDL is for postmortem sampling, please report the death in TWIMS
as soon as possible so that the result can be credited to your facility as
quickly as possible. As of August 15,
2016, all accession forms must be created through TWIMS, and will automatically
include all required information to ensure the results are received and
accurately processed in TWIMS. TPWD
staff will not be able to process any test results that do not reference a unique
number. Please contact TPWD staff with any questions.
Sincerely,
Deer Breeder Program Staff
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