OutdoorMN News - New CWD-positive deer in Crow Wing County and southeastern Minnesota require additional disease monitoring and management

[Rick]

Gov. Walz proposes new funding to combat CWD; DNR plans disease response efforts

The Department of Natural Resources has confirmed chronic wasting disease (CWD) in a wild deer in Crow Wing County. This test result marks the first time in Minnesota the fatal neurological disease has been found in a wild deer outside of the southeastern part of the state. 

Previous discoveries of the disease in wild deer have been concentrated predominantly in Fillmore County, with additional discoveries in Houston and Winona counties in the past two months.

As a result of these discoveries, the DNR is planning additional disease response actions, and Gov. Tim Walz is proposing new funding of $4.57 million over the next two fiscal years, and $1.1 million annually thereafter to combat the disease, including surveillance and response, enforcement, and outreach to landowners.

“We take every discovery of CWD very seriously,” said DNR Commissioner Sarah Strommen. “It is our hope that we discovered the Crow Wing County infection early and can respond quickly with actions to eliminate the disease in this area. With this critical new funding, we will continue to work with private landowners, hunters and others to achieve our goal of maintaining a healthy deer herd and Minnesota’s treasured deer hunting experience.”

The Crow Wing County deer, an adult female, was found in Merrifield, north of Brainerd, on Jan. 23. A conservation officer responded to a report of a deceased deer. The DNR tests suspect deer when possible, especially in areas of high risk. Test results confirmed the deer as positive for CWD on Feb. 14.

The DNR began surveillance around a CWD-positive captive cervid facility near Merrifield starting in the 2017 hunting season. Over the last two years, the DNR has sampled more than 8,600 deer in this north-central surveillance zone, with no previous detections of CWD-positive deer.

“Thanks to our deer hunters, we have done a lot of surveillance in this area over the past two years, and it’s our hope the disease is isolated within this area,” said Lou Cornicelli, DNR wildlife research manager.

As next steps, the DNR will determine where deer are located in the area by working with conservation officers and wildlife staff, and conducting an aerial survey. In addition, the DNR will explore the possibility of late-season deer removals.

DNR will also work closely with the Board of Animal Health, which regulates Minnesota’s captive deer and elk. Strommen emphasized that “I will take all steps within my authority to ensure the facility with CWD-positive deer has adequate safeguards in place to protect Minnesota’s wild deer.”

Board Senior Veterinarian Dr. Mackenzie Reberg affirmed, “The Board’s role is to protect the health of livestock in the state, and we are concerned about any detection of CWD in Minnesota. We believe in fighting this disease from all fronts and using science, surveillance and teamwork to stop CWD.”

Southeastern Minnesota CWD management efforts

In the southeast, the DNR has also intensified its management efforts, adding several special hunts in late 2018 and early 2019 to identify areas of CWD-infected wild deer. During the January/February special hunts in deer permit area 346, a hunter harvested a wild deer in Winona County that tested positive for CWD.

The positive deer was a 1 ½-year-old buck harvested 2.5 miles east of a Winona County deer farm that tested positive for CWD in 2017 and 8 miles from the wild CWD-positive deer in Houston County found this fall. It was the first detection of CWD in wild deer in Winona County since testing began in Minnesota in 2002.

Within the disease management zone in deer permit area 603, targeted culling through the U.S. Department of Agriculture – Wildlife Services has removed 154 deer, as of Feb. 12. Of them, four were CWD-positive and results are pending for 35 deer.

In response to these detections, DNR will activate additional response steps that include conducting an aerial survey to determine deer distributions in the area and working with landowners on deer removal options.

Additional CWD information

CWD affects the cervid family, which includes deer, elk and moose. It is spread through direct contact with an infected deer’s saliva, urine, blood, feces, antler velvet or carcass. There is no vaccine or treatment for this disease. For more information on CWD,  visit mndnr.gov/cwd.

Discuss below - to view set the hook here.

[delcecchi]

We need to immediately shut down all deer farms in Minnesota, and Euthanize all their stock.  They are a clear and present danger.   What is this, 4 or 5 different operations that have imported CWD into our state?    

 

 

[Wanderer]

Seems like too many people are afraid to just outright say it that way for political reasons.  

 

The answer to mitigation on the public side of the fence is to de-populate, yet with the apparent source of the problem on the private side of the fence, we can’t de-populate there.  Wouldn’t $4.57 million allow for a good start?

[creepworm]

13 hours ago, delcecchi said:

We need to immediately shut down all deer farms in Minnesota, and Euthanize all their stock.  They are a clear and present danger.   What is this, 4 or 5 different operations that have imported CWD into our state?    

 

 

 

Closing the barn door after the cattle are out?

[delcecchi]

1 hour ago, creepworm said:

 

Closing the barn door after the cattle are out?

Nope.  Still many more infestations waiting to happen out there.   The regulation of deer farming industry by the farming industry clearly has failed.    The industry needs to be totally shut down at least until a usable test for CWD in living animals is available.  

[creepworm]

49 minutes ago, delcecchi said:

Nope.  Still many more infestations waiting to happen out there.   The regulation of deer farming industry by the farming industry clearly has failed.    The industry needs to be totally shut down at least until a usable test for CWD in living animals is available.  

 

Sure, but I can't help but feel this is very similar to AIS. Now that we have it in wild deer it is something we will just have to live with. We can try to slow the spread, but it will inevitably spread. 

 

The time to shut down deer farms and have an actual effect would have been 10-15 years ago.

[kelly-p]

Interesting info. Malformed Prions might not be the cause of CWD. A tiny bacteria could the cause of CWD and the malformed prions a result of CWD not the cause.

https://wjactv.com/news/local/researchers-claim-cure-to-deadly-deer-disease-game-commission-responds

https://lancasteronline.com/sports/outdoors/could-we-be-wrong-about-what-causes-dreaded-chronic-wasting/article_6b68034a-2b14-11e9-96b6-8bdb169e7a30.html

[delcecchi]

6 hours ago, kelly-p said:

Interesting info. Malformed Prions might not be the cause of CWD. A tiny bacteria could the cause of CWD and the malformed prions a result of CWD not the cause.

https://wjactv.com/news/local/researchers-claim-cure-to-deadly-deer-disease-game-commission-responds

https://lancasteronline.com/sports/outdoors/could-we-be-wrong-about-what-causes-dreaded-chronic-wasting/article_6b68034a-2b14-11e9-96b6-8bdb169e7a30.html

It would be great if he is right.   Now, if he is wrong......   Still need to stop deer farms from spreading this disease. 

[Paradice]

What's the plan after the deer farms are gone?  I'm all for ganging up on a minority and squashing their rights, but we've still got a real problem to deal with.  

[Bigfatbert]

Deer farms need more oversight, they need to be strictly regulated with tougher regulations, and extremely  stiff penalties for lack of following these stricter regulations. Wasteful spending of tax payers money to curb this is just that “wasteful “...

CWD is not new whatsoever . It first was discovered , I believe ,  way back in the 1960’s , that was when it was first noticed , so it obviously had been around  before that . So good Lord it’s darn near sixty years ,at least of existence  If it was going to be the death of all deer , well then it should of happened by now . Pockets of sickness will occur , but whacking out all the deer in any given area is nonsense. As is implementation of no recreational feeding is also nonsense in a social animal that deer naturally are . Licking , sniffing, sharing natural food sources already naturally occur with deer..It is for the most part a self elimination of the disease by death anyway.. Do what can be done with the farms , and don’t panic , things will be just fine . Time has proven this to be the case.. the numbers  after 60+ years of the existence of this disease speak for themselves ..  there are other deer diseases we should be more worried about anyway as they do  have the potential to setback the herd in large numbers , such as EHD .  Not much can be done to curb the spread of these more potential  deadly diseases either . It just is what it is ... all the more reason to control deer farms as that’s were things like EHD tend to start also .

[Bigfatbert]

I will also add to my above post that the discoveries of this disease in new areas like crow wing co. should not become a panic in that area and the whacking of deer in these areas is truly nonsense. What if one deer survives the mass killing that happens to be infected ,, well then what ? In a herd that annually is around one million in our state , having a handful of sick deer from CWD is not the end to our herd .How many deer actually do test positive from these stupid massive killings when all the bullets are done flying ?? Sooner or later with the now implementation of CWD testing , ,it’s gonna pop up  in new areas either naturally or by the existence of poor oversight and improper management of deer farms . So if this time it’s a deer in Crow Wing Co . So the DNR says let’s whack them all in that area , how bout when one happens to test positive next month in Lake of the woods co  , well let’s whack them all there too , and when one happens to test positive in Itasca or Hubbard co , well let’s whack them also . Before long we won’t have any deer left in our state with this stupid thinking , it won’t be the he disease itself that eliminated our deer herd , it’s the DNR that just eliminated our herd .. killing as many deer in a positive test area does nothing to help the problem..  on another note our DNR management of deer is terrible and many times quotas for upcoming seasons are determined by auto  insurance companies who pressure the state that these areas are carrying to many deer and the herd needs to be thinner in these areas , and thus lowering  the payouts to insured motorists who happen to hit a deer and make a claim. So then the state ups the permits and harvest in these areas to thin out the deer , ahhhh money the root of all evil. Nothing to do with a Biological stance whatsoever. And when these numbers don’t fall within quotas by permits to harvest these extra deer , well then find a deer in those areas that has CWD and kill them all , then the state says “there now we lowered those numbers “ and the insurance companies say thanks . Nooooooo dat don’t happen , does it ??? Hmmmmm !!

[delcecchi]

Bert, go look at information online about Dane County wisconsin.   They did nothing and now have infection rates rapidly approaching 50% of the deer in some areas.   

 

And yes, deer/elk farms have been known vectors of CWD for decades. See Elk Run near Pine Isand as an example, or the importing of breeding stock by lease hunting operations in Dane County.    But some folks were making money and they captured the regulators in the Ag department of the state. so the natural resource folks couldn't do much, apparently.    

 

Funny you  guys should mention AIS. since it was known for a long time that the ships from Europe pumping their bilge and ballast in the great lakes was a problem, but the coast guard didn't make them flush tanks at sea for several decades, because the ship operators kept whining it would increase cost.    So now we have gobies and zeebs and quagas and spiny water fleas and other bad stuff.

 

Likewise with green wood pallets that brought us dutch elm disease, and emerald ash borers.   There could have been a reg that all wood pallets coming into the country needed to be heat treated.   But that would have cost someone money, so now no ash or elm trees around.   

 

If caught quick enough in an area CWD can be eradicated (see pine island ) and the elimination of deer farms will greatly slow the spread.   

 

Where are the QDM and Deer Hunter association folks?  Why aren't they demonstrating and lobbying and all that for the state to do something more aggressive?