A big increase in this year's submissions of animal heads is helping the Saskatchewan Wildlife Federation get a better understanding of chronic wasting disease (CWD).

Roughly 800 animal heads have been acquired so far for testing with 98 of them testing positive for the disease.

Although the number of animal heads being tested is up from just under 400 last year and 250 the year before, Todd Whiklo, a wildlife ecologist for the grasslands ecoregion, said the increase is good but they need a lot more samples to get a greater understanding of widespread the disease is.

"We're still way below targets that we want to reach," he said. "You require a sample size somewhere in the range of 300 out of a given area to get a solid understanding of what the prevalence of the disease is."

The fatal nervous system disease of deer, elk, and, in limited cases, moose, has been found in every wildlife zone in southwestern Saskatchewan at least once.

"In southwestern Saskatchewan, unfortunately, we have some wildlife management zones that appear to have the highest or among the highest prevalence for CWD," Whiklo stated. "We're still struggling to get samples, we have many zones where we were only getting 10-20 samples out of them. Really we need more samples across the board."

According to Whiklo, hunters won't be able to tell if an animal has the illness without testing for it because once they start displaying the symptoms it tends to be a quick death.

"The vast majority of the deer that are actually positive on the landscape," he explained. "They're not going to any telltale signs that a hunter would be able to key in on."

Currently there is no evidence linking humans being affected by CWD, but the Ministry of Health and Health Canada have adopted a precautionary principal recommending that any hunted meat is tested and those that come back positive not be consumed.