Updated at 2:36 p.m., December 23. Please see updates at end of post.
Within the last hour, Roseville DFL state representative and wild white-tailed deer herd champion Jamie Becker-Finn tweeted:
This follows new positive CWD deer at farm in Douglas County that’s connected to multiple additional farms, 150+ captive deer now at high risk. Board of Animal Health then unanimously voted down advice of their staff & didnt institute any new protections. Thankfully DNR could act
— Jamie Becker-Finn (@jbeckerfinn) December 23, 2019
We followed the link in Becker-Finn's tweet to the most recent State Register, which has published the following on page 713:
Adopted Expedited Emergency Game and Fish Rules: Temporary Prohibition on the Movement of Farmed White-Tailed DeerNotice is hereby given that, pursuant to the Commissioner’s authority set forth in Minn. Stat. § 97A.045, subd. 1(b) to control domestic animals that are posing a threat to wildlife, together with her authority in Minn. Stat. § 97A.045, subd. 1(a) to do all things necessary to preserve, protect, and propagate desirable species of wild animals; Minn. Stat. § 97A.045, subd. 11 to undertake action necessary to prevent or control a wildlife disease; and Minn. Stat. § 97A.025 to retain ownership of the wild animals of the state in the state’s sovereign capacity for the benefit of all the people of the state, the Commissioner is adopting the following rule to prevent the spread of chronic wasting disease (CWD) among the wild deer population by temporarily prohibiting the movement of all farmed white-tailed deer within the state. Because of extensive and irreversible damage that CWD could do to the wild deer population in the time it would take to use the Chapter 14 rulemaking process to adopt this rule, the DNR is using its expedited emergency rulemaking authority pursuant to Minn. Stat. § 84.027, subd. 13(b).
This rule is adopted as an expedited emergency rule pursuant to the authority granted to the commissioner to adopt emergency rules in Minn. Stat. § 84.027, subd. 13(b). The emergency rule is necessitated by the recent discovery of CWD in farmed white-tailed deer in Douglas County. The presence of CWD in farmed white-tailed deer herds poses a significant risk to surrounding wild herds. Prions, the infectious agent causing the disease, are found in urine, saliva, blood, feces, muscle and antler velvet of infected deer. Disease transmission can occur via direct contact between farmed deer and wild deer through farm fences or following farmed deer escape. Moreover, anthropogenic movement of live cervids is widely recognized to be one of the greatest risk factors in spreading CWD. See Afwa Technical Report on Best Management Practices for Surveillance, Management and Control of Chronic Wasting Disease 15-19 (Colin M. Gillin & Johnathan R. Mawdsley eds., 2018). A temporary prohibition on all movement of farmed white-tailed deer would help control and contain the current spread of CWD, while allowing the Department of Natural Resources time to evaluate the outbreak, generate potential solutions to containing and eliminating the disease, and protect the wild deer herd.
Dated: December 19, 2019
Sarah Strommen
Commissioner of Natural Resources
We'll update this post as more news on the emergency rule develops.
Update #1: A press release from the DNR, sent via email:
DNR to protect Minnesota wild deer through temporary ban on movement of farmed deer in Minnesota
Agency takes emergency action in response to discovery of chronic wasting disease in farmed deer in Douglas County
The Department of Natural Resources today issued an emergency rule that temporarily prohibits the movement of all farmed white-tailed deer within the state.
The rule, which goes into effect today, is a temporary, emergency action to reduce further spread of chronic wasting disease and protect Minnesota’s wild deer. The action is in response to the recent discovery of CWD in a farmed white-tailed deer in Douglas County in western Minnesota. The emergency rule is in effect for 30 days.
The Minnesota Board of Animal Health earlier this month confirmed an 8-year-old white-tailed doe tested positive for the fatal deer disease in a small, two-deer hobbyist herd.
The new discovery in Douglas County has connections to other Minnesota deer farms and the state needs time to investigate locations that either provided deer to, or received deer from, the hobby farm.
“We don’t take this action lightly,” said DNR Commissioner Sarah Strommen. “The DNR is committed to proactively addressing CWD and doing everything we can do to protect Minnesota’s deer herd. The Douglas County positive, with its connections to other farms in the state, poses a risk to wild deer that requires emergency action.”
The temporary prohibition on all movement of farmed white-tailed deer in Minnesota would help control and contain the current spread of CWD, while allowing the state time to evaluate the outbreak, generate potential solutions to containing and eliminating the disease, and protect the wild deer herd. The DNR is working closely with BAH on investigating the Douglas County discovery and tracing the farm’s connections to other locations in the state./p>
The DNR is already monitoring for CWD in disease management zones in southeastern and north-central Minnesota where the disease has been detected in both captive and wild deer, as well as in a CWD surveillance area in central Minnesota where it has been found in captive deer.
Prions, the infectious agent causing the disease, are found in urine, saliva, blood, feces, muscle and antler velvet of infected deer. Disease transmission can occur via direct animal-to-animal contact.
Since CWD was first detected in Minnesota in 2002, the DNR has tested more than 90,000 wild deer in the state. To date, 73 wild deer have been confirmed positive for CWD in Minnesota. Test results, including locations of confirmed positive test results and statistics, are available on the DNR website at mndnr.gov/cwdcheck.
For more information about the Douglas County situation, see our earlier post Minnesota Chronic Wasting Disease test results update-- and a case of regulatory capture and Dave Orrick's in-depth reporting at the Pioneer Press, Regulators to deer farmers: Stop moving deer around (please).
Photo: A healthy wild whitetail buck.
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