Bluestem Prairie has covered Chronic Wasting Disease in Minnesota since Bambi was a fawn.
Our readers should listen to Minnesota Reformer's podcast about CWD featuring Roseville DFL state representative Jamie Becker-Finn, available via this tweet:
📻 Weekend listening on our podcast 🔊 The wild politics of the zombie deer disease https://t.co/HBUPiz0CRC
— Minnesota Reformer (@MNReformer) August 14, 2021
At the Reformer, the clip is introduced in The wild politics of the zombie deer disease:
Since chronic wasting disease was first found in wild deer in Minnesota in 2010, it’s shown up in more deer and in more places across the state. Preventing the so-called Zombie Deer Disease from spreading is especially difficult because the vector — a folded protein called a prion — can contaminate plants and soil for years.
But stopping the spread is just as much a political problem as it is a scientific one, and the disease has pitted two industries against each other. Hunters point at captive deer and elk farms, which have been linked to numerous CWD outbreaks, as a threat to wild herds across the continent. But the deer farm industry has successfully warded off the tougher regulation from the Department of Natural Resources.
No humans are known to have been infected with CWD. But experts worry it could jump species like “mad cow disease,” which is also spread by a prion, and hunters are advised not to eat contaminated meat. The disease’s spread poses a significant threat to the 12,000 jobs, $93 million in taxes and $417 million in salaries and wages that the state’s half-a-million hunters support.
Rep. Jamie Becker-Finn, DFL-Roseville, is a lifelong hunter who’s taken up CWD as one of her top legislative priorities. She explains what she thinks the state has done to control the spread and what she thinks it still needs to do.
If you appreciate the work of the Minnesota Reformer, please consider making a donation to the online, non-profit publication.
Related posts:
- Listen to MN House environment committee chair Rep. Rick Hansen talk CWD on Matt McNeil Show
- Special Board of Animal Health meeting to review farmed Cervidae rulemaking postponed
- Bad news from the North: CWD sweeps through Alberta & Saskatchewan deer & elk herds
- Forum News Service: MN Deerhunters Association wants to end deer farming
- Just in: House DFL Lawmakers urge resignation of Minnesota Board of Animal Health President
- Star Tribune: Deer farming and "CWD-infested dump site on public land" in Beltrami County
- Are deer farmers posing against MN DNR rule pausing movement of captive whitetails?
- MN DNR temporarily bans movement of farmed whitetails in state to protect wild deer health
- 5 more MN deer farm herds exposed to CWD; Beltrami carcass dump site inquiry continues
- News release: U of M testing finds presence of CWD prions at Beltrami Co. carcass dump site
- BAH: Southern Minnesota CWD investigation identifies new infection in Beltrami County
- Concerned about CWD in MN deer? Learn about new research from MNPRO's Peter Larsen
- Some of the science at the center of Update on Chronic Wasting Disease Efforts hearing
- VIDEO: MNHouse passes bill for process to extend funding for ENRTF projects for one year
- Session Daily: Experts want to study how CWD flows in state's waterways
- Sen. Andrew Lang seems behind the curve on current funding & progress of CWD test research
- VIDEO: University of Minnesota scientists share CWD research, search for test with lawmakers
- Environment and Natural Resources Trust Fund plan from U of M for CWD diagnostic test
- Peter Larsen slideshow: Development of Advanced Diagnostic Tests for CWD by U of M
Photo: A wild white-tailed buck.
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