After watching an exchange between Representative Rick Hansen, DFL-South St. Paul, and Dr. Beth Thompson, executive director of the Minnesota Board of Animal Health during Wednesday's meeting of the House Agriculture Finance and Policy Committee, we also watched a report on PBS NewsHour about the same topic.
While Thompson quickly pivoted away from Hansen's question about human health and COVID-19 in white-tailed deer as a reservoir of COVID-19 and potential source for new variants, to discuss hamster culling in Hong Kong, the pros at PBS managed to stay on topic.
This isn't the only time we've seen Thompson shape-sift on questions related to white-tailed deer farms. Most recently, there was The curious focus on a deer farmer's record of petty crime on the part of the BAH exec director. As we pointed out then, a criminal background check isn't required for livestock farmers, only a check for animal cruelty convictions for dog and cat breeders.
Here's the exchange between Hansen and Thompson:
Here's the PBS NewsHour clip:
We may be looking more into an earlier exchange between Representative Rob Ecklund, DFL-International Falls, and Minnesota Commissioner of Agriculture Thom Petersen. The Departure of Agriculture has no regulatory authority over farmed or wild cervidae, but the department is getting involved.
Readers can access the report to the legislature from the agencies that do have concurrent authority in Monday's post MN DNR & BAH transmit report, Concurrent Authority Regulating Farmed White-tailed Deer
The report and its cover letter are embedded in the post.
Related posts:
- Minnesota Board of Animal Health: Chronic Wasting Disease endemic area update map
- The curious focus on a deer farmer's record of petty crime on the part of the BAH exec director
- Strib: Fighting Chronic Wasting Disease one of five top outdoor issues to watch in 2022
- MN DNR: Positive test on 1 Brainerd Lakes area deer extends CWD management to 2024
- CWD news: DNR to rescind rule temporarily banning farmed deer movement into/within MN
- MN DNR: December CWD hunts offer deer hunters additional harvest opportunities
- CWD update: MN Center for Prion Research & Outreach's MN-QuIC field-deployment paper
- Minnesota CWD update: Changes for deer hunters in southern Red River Valley
- MN DNR: CWD suspected in a wild deer harvested along northwestern MN border
- Minnesota Chronic Wasting Disease news digest: upcoming firearms hunt spurs coverage
- Watch MNHouse Environment Committee hearing on CWD, EAB & local government water grants
- DNR: Chronic wasting disease testing is mandatory for MN deer opener in CWD zones
- CWD: Outdoors writer bags skinny doe, responds to American Cervid Alliance guy's letter
- State rep Tim Miller: MN state public officials beholden to radical anti-livestock enviro groups
- MN Deer Farmers Association sends House environmental committee chair a letter
- DNR temporarily bans farmed deer movement into & within MN to protect wild white-tailed deer
- CWD update: DNR Commissioner's letter to BAH Director on regulation to protect state's wild deer
- Bemidji Pioneer: Must-read article on illegal dumped CWD deer remains in Beltrami County
- Statement: Minnesota DNR learns of 2 deer farms that received deer from CWD+ farm in Wisconsin
- Hunters, tribes, conservation groups and St. Louis County call on state to get rid of deer farms
- Tune in to House Enviro Committee hearing tomorrow morning for latest CWD information
- MN DNR press release: Return to mandatory testing in chronic wasting disease zones this season
- South Dakota Game, Fish & Parks: CWD detected in mule deer in new area, Perkins County
- UMN MNPRO’s latest research detects CWD prions in cervid muscles using RT-QuIC
- MNReformer Radio podcast interviews Jamie Becker-Finn on Chronic Wasting Disease politics
- 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: Wild white-tailed deer in the woods.
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