Back in March, we posted about a South Dakota Study [that showed] endocrine-disrupting imidacloprid, a neonicotinoid, messes up does and fawns.
Earlier this fall, South Dakota News Watch reported study shows neonics a danger to deer, pheasant study results soon.
Now the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources wants hunters' help in seeing if the study results resonate among Minnesota's whitetails. The St. Paul Pioneer Press's Dave Orrick reports in Are pesticides poisoning Minnesota’s deer? Hunters will offer up deer spleens as part of study:
Minnesota wildlife researchers have a thing for deer spleens this fall.
Starting this weekend with the state firearms hunting opener, researchers with the Department of Natural Resources are hoping to collect at least 800 of the organs from hunter-killed whitetail deer.
It’s part of a study to explore the levels of a widely used family of insecticides — neonicotinoids — in deer.
The study is the first step in getting at a heavy question: Are the controversial chemicals harming the state’s deer? Because it looks like they could be in the Dakotas.
The effort comes as neonicotinoids — the most widely used pesticides in the world and heavily used in Minnesota-grown corn and soybeans — face increasing scrutiny for their unintended effects on wildlife, from honeybees to birds to fish. Neonicotinoids are known to be toxic to pollinators and are among several likely culprits in bee population collapses.
Neonicotinoids are not known to cause ill health effects in people, and there’s been no evidence uncovered suggesting the state’s roughly half a million deer hunters should be concerned about feeding their harvested venison to their families because of pesticides. As for the state’s deer population, it’s generally been growing for several years, and hunting and harsh winters continue to be the largest factors in deer survival.
While the state’s efforts to manage the nascent-but-expanding chronic wasting disease among deer have occupied the minds of hunters and policymakers for more than a year, the concern over deer and “neonics” is new. . . .
Read the rest at the Pioneer Press.
Here's the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources' bulletin that accompanied the map at the top of the post:
Spleen samples sought statewide to help DNR map potential exposure
DNR is conducting a pilot study to screen hunter-harvested deer for the presence of neonicotinoids, and we need you to send in a spleen sample.
Neonicotinoid pesticides are insecticides that are applied through seed treatments, in foliar sprays, applied granularly to pastures and injected into trees.
A recent study in South Dakota found that white-tailed deer exposed to high levels of neonicotinoids, in a controlled setting, showed behavioral changes and also had reduced fawn survival. We want to determine if wild deer in Minnesota are being exposed and to what level.
Using the density of row crops (corn, wheat and soybeans; see map [above]) as basis for potential exposure, we hope to collect a total of 800 samples equally divided in areas with low, medium and high row crop density. If significant exposure is found in a part of the state, we can design a more specific study to understand how those deer are being exposure and what the specific population affects may be.
Learn about how to participate in the rest of the bulletin, Help us learn about pesticides in Minnesota deer.
Map: Crop density in Minnesota. Via the DNR bulletin, Help us learn about pesticides in Minnesota deer.
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Thank you, this needs to be done.
Posted by: Keith R Blomstrom | Nov 08, 2019 at 05:08 PM