BLOOMFIELD -The Iowa Department of Natural Resources is holding a meeting for landowners in Davis and Wapello counties to discuss chronic wasting disease and the DNR's plan to collect additional samples for testing during the upcoming deer-hunting season.

The meeting is November 20, at 6:30 p.m., at the Davis County Courthouse Courtroom, 100 Courthouse Square, in Bloomfield. The DNR will give an overview of chronic wasting disease, present its statewide testing plan for the 2012 deer hunting season, and discuss proper sampling procedures and protocols.

Chronic wasting disease was confirmed in a Davis County hunting preserve earlier this summer.

"We hope to have as many Davis and Wapello County landowners attend as possible as they will be a vital component to our overall CWD containment plan," said Dr. Dale Garner, chief of the Iowa DNR's Wildlife Bureau. "We need to collect additional samples in the county and in the area surrounding the facility to ascertain if anything is happening in the wild deer herd," Garner said.

The majority of samples are collected during the shotgun deer seasons from hunters and the lockers where deer are processed.

Iowa has tested 42,557 wild deer and more than 4,000 captive deer and elk as part of the surveillance program since 2002 when CWD was found in Wisconsin.