AUSTIN — The Texas Parks and Wildlife Commission has approved updates to the Chronic Wasting Disease (CWD) Containment and Surveillance Zones.

Containment zones refer to areas where CWD has been detected and confirmed. Surveillance zones identify areas where, based on the best available science and data, the presence of CWD could be reasonably expected.

Texas Parks and Wildlife Department (TPWD) will replace mandatory check station requirements with voluntary testing measures beginning Sep. 1 in the following containment and surveillance zones:

• CZ 1- Hudspeth and Culberson counties
• CZ 2- Deaf Smith, Oldham and Hartley counties
• CZ 3- Bandera, Medina and Uvalde counties
• CZ 4- Val Verde County
• CZ 5- Lubbock County
• CZ 6- Kimble County
• SZ 1- Culberson and Hudspeth counties
• SZ 3 — Bandera, Medina and Uvalde counties
• SZ 4 — Val Verde County
• SZ 5- Kimble County
• SZ 6 — Garza, Lynn, Lubbock and Crosby counties

Mandatory CWD testing is still in place for SZ 2 due to the additional detections of CWD in free-range mule deer outside of CZ 2.

In response to these detections, TPWD will additionally expand the geographical coverage of two containment zones in the Panhandle.

TPWD will eliminate two surveillance zones – SZ 10 and SZ 11 – in Uvalde County and SZ 12 in Limestone County.

Additional amendments have been adopted to modify surveillance zones to include only portions of properties within a two-mile radius around a CWD positive deer breeding facility (the physical facility, not the boundaries of the property where the infected facility is located).

Zone information can be found on the CWD webpage on the TPWD website.