On the eve of a special deer hunt to curb Chronic Wasting Disease (CWD) in a limited zone in Southeastern Minnesota, there's more bad news for whitetails, hunters and deer farmers. More CWD-positive deer have been identified in Crow Wing County--and another in Southeastern Minnesota near the first two cases.
The Minnesota Department of Natural Resources explains in a Friday news release that CWD is a prion disorder that's always fatal to deer:
CWD is a disease of deer and elk and is caused by an abnormally shaped protein, a prion, which can damage brain and nerve tissue. The disease is most likely transmitted when infected deer and elk shed prions in saliva, feces, urine, and other fluids or tissues. There are no known treatments or vaccines and the disease is always fatal. There is no danger to other animal species and CWD is not known to affect humans, though consuming infected meat is not advised.
The details from the news release:
Chronic Wasting Disease (CWD) has been identified in a farmed deer herd in Crow Wing County near Merrifield. The herd of 33 mule deer and 100 white-tailed deer is registered with the Board of Animal Health. Two, two-year-old female deer were slaughtered on the farm and both tested positive for CWD. The deer showed no clinical signs of illness.
The Board of Animal Health requires CWD testing of all farmed deer or elk that die or are slaughtered and are more than 12 months of age. Routine tissue samples were collected at slaughter from the CWD infected deer. Those samples were tested at the University of Minnesota’s Veterinary Diagnostic Laboratory and then forwarded to the National Veterinary Services Laboratory in Ames, Iowa for official confirmation. Those tests confirmed CWD.
“The affected herd has been quarantined,” said Dr. Paul Anderson, assistant director at the Board of Animal Health. “At this point, our priority is making sure no deer leave or enter the farm while we work with the owner to determine the best course of action for the herd. We’re also working closely with the Department of Natural Resources and the United States Department of Agriculture as we develop plans.”
“We hope the full extent of the infection is evaluated soon so overall disease prevalence can be determined for the remaining animals,” said Dr. Lou Cornicelli, wildlife research manager for the DNR. “A full accounting of on-farm and movements of farmed animals will help inform DNR’s overall response to the discovery.”
People who hunt near the infected farm should prepare for CWD surveillance during the 2017 deer hunting season. The DNR’s CWD response plan, which establishes general procedures for wild deer surveillance if CWD is detected in a farmed deer facility, is available online at www.mndnr.gov/cwdplan. . . .
This development comes on the hoof of the discovery of another infected wild deer in Southeastern Minnesota, where plans developed after two deer in the area tested positive have drawn intense public concern, as we noted in Chronic wasting disease: 800 people pack DNR meeting about special hunt for 900 whitetails.
Thursday, KARE-11's Heidi Wigdahl reported in Third CWD-infected deer found in SE MN; special hunt starts Saturday:
Hunters are now just days away from a special deer hunt to help stop the spread of Chronic Wasting Disease.
Tuesday, the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources announced that a third deer was found infected with CWD. A hunter harvested the deer in mid-November. Around that same time, two other deer were killed that later tested positive for CWD about 4 miles west of Lanesboro. The third deer was killed about 5 miles north of the other two in southeastern Minnesota.
The only other wild deer found in Minnesota with the disease was harvested near Pine Island in 2010.
"It's disappointing but we're still hoping that we're on the front end of this infection," said Lou Cornicelli, DNR wildlife research manager.
Cornicelli said the discovery of the third infected deer will not change the current boundaries of the CWD management zone. However, this latest case will affect the disease control zone for farmed deer and elk.
CWD is a fatal brain disease to deer, elk and moose. It is not known to affect people but the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention still warns people against eating meat from animals known to have CWD.
Wigdahl also reports that residents in Filmore, Houston, Mower, Olmsted and Winona counties will be banned from feeding wild deer. Since the disease is spread through urine, feces and saliva, congregating deer over a common food source spikes the CWD transmission rate when the disorder is present.
This isn't government overreach. CWD in Colorado and Wyoming has reduced the deer populations drastically and it's important to act swiftly to protect the state's deer herd. The DNR calls whitetail deer "one of Minnesota's most ecologically, socially and economically important animals." Explore Minnesota notes that hundreds of thousands of Minnesotans hunt deer each year.
Photo: A CWD positive deer, via the Wyoming Game and Fish Department.
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