BELFIELD - This western North Dakota crossroads community was bumping Sunday afternoon.

Not only was the usual traffic running east or west on Interstate 94 or pointing north or south on U.S. Highway 85, but some deer hunters were homeward bound as the first weekend of the gun deer season wound down.

Staked out in prominent positions on the east and west sides of Highway 85 were six employees of the North Dakota Game and Fish Department, on hand to collect tissue samples from the does or small bucks that accompanied successful deer hunters.

It's week one of another NDGFD effort to collect tissue samples to be sent off and be tested for chronic wasting disease. CWD never has been found in North Dakota, but it has been reported in adjacent states and Canadian provinces. Although the disease is fatal to deer and elk, scientists have no evidence that CWD can be transmitted naturally to humans or livestock.

The goal this year is 1,700 samples, which are being collected from deer statewide, said Dorothy Fecske, NDGFD furbearer and disease biologist.

Sunday's outposts in Belfield were just the vanguard of this year's effort. Collection bins, where hunters may drop off deer heads, have been set up at NDGFD offices throughout the state and will be open until the season closes. A number of meat processors statewide, wildlife clubs, fur buyers and some taxidermists in western North Dakota also are participating.

All of those heads were going to the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Wildlife Services laboratory, where NDGFD employees started extracting lymph nodes, tonsils and brain stems Tuesday.

The first wave of about 200 came from areas in the southwest and northeast.

Fecske estimated about 300 to 400 more heads were on-site.

"There are plenty more waiting outside. We're off to a good start," she said as she and more than 20 other NDGFD employees sliced, diced, then discarded the heads.

In addition to taking samples, NDGFD big-game biologist Bill Jensen was documenting information on yearling bucks' antler development, a project he has been doing for five years.

"One argument you commonly hear is antler restrictions, four points to a side," he said Tuesday as he took a break from his work. "In yearlings, about 30 percent have four points per side.

"I'm just documenting what's here," he continued as he picked up the head of a yearling buck sporting four points on per side. Antlers on another yearling buck showed a spike on one side and the hint of a fork on the other side.

This is the third year that NDGFD has taken over the Wildlife Services lab, which lies a couple miles north of the NDGFD Bismarck office.

"There is a lot more room," Fecske said as she surveyed the room, where work tables were set up in the lab. A dump truck, parked just outside, was the receptacle for discarded heads. The Wildlife Services lab has three to four times more space than what's available at the NDGFD lab.

Sunday's collection effort wasn't as labor intensive as Tuesday's work inside.

A northwest wind Sunday kept the temperature feeling chillier than it was as the NDGFD staff from Bismarck, Dickinson and Williston extracted only the lymph nodes from hunters' deer. Lymph nodes are sufficient for a test for CWD.

One crew worked near the Conoco convenience center on the west side of Highway 85 and the other team was set up at the Tesoro truck stop on the east side of the highway that carries travelers and hunters north to Watford City and Williston or south to Bowman and on down to Deadwood, S.D.

Some hunters pulled in and asked about providing CWD samples from their deer. Other times, NDGFD staffers sought out and asked hunters who had stopped to gas up or buy food.

Most said yes, unless they had a special a buck they planned to hang on a den wall.

"Hopefully, we will get (those heads) from taxidermists after they are finished," said Tom Cruchfield, of the NDGFD's Williston office. "That will give us a better sampling of older bucks."

Not only was the high traffic intersection an ideal target of opportunity, but it's been harder to get samples out of western North Dakota, said Fecske.

By the time they packed up their fillet knifes, containers of samples and latex gloves Sunday evening, the crews had collected 142 samples, Fecske said Tuesday.

Jay and Jennifer Heinz were among the successful hunters, whose deer yielded lymph nodes for testing.

"We hunted hard all weekend. They were so spooky," Jay Heinz said.

They killed their does Sunday morning.

Jennifer Heinz's doe was only her second deer. She has been hunting deer for three years

"I didn't get one my first year," she said.

"She made a good shot, about 200 yards," Jay Heinz added.

Visiting with hunters, successful or unsuccessful, is a bonus for NDGFD employees.

"It was a good opener," said Brett Wiedmann, a biologist with the NDGFD Dickinson office. "The guys were seeing lots of deer. The buck hunters were doing well as far as seeing bucks and the quality of bucks. People were generally happy with the opener," he said.

(Reach outdoor writer Richard Hinton at 701-250-8256 or richard.hinton@bismarcktribune.com.)