ST. PAUL, Minn. – The Department of Natural Resources is putting on farmed white-tailed deer in Minnesota on lockdown.
An emergency rule temporarily stopping the movement of all such deer in the state went into effect Monday to try and reduce the further spread of chronic wasting disease after a case of CWD was found in farmed deer in Douglas County. The emergency rule will be in effect for 30 days.
“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 DNR is investigating the Douglas County discovery and tracing the farm’s connections to other locations in the state. State authorities are 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.
Since CWD was first detected in Minnesota in 2002, the DNR says it has has tested more than 90,000 wild deer in the state. 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.
