DNR urges action to fight outbreak of chronic wasting disease

Now is the time to act if Minnesota is to control the recent outbreak of chronic wasting disease that threatens the state’s deer population.

Lou Cornicelli, Department of Natural Resources wildlife research manager, delivered that message to the House Environment and Natural Resources Policy and Finance Committee Tuesday, and he warned that a “passive approach” would make it “likely” the disease becomes established in the state.

“Eliminating the disease from southeastern Minnesota requires aggressive action,” Cornicelli said.

A fatal brain disease found in deer, moose and elk, CWD was identified last November in two deer killed by hunters near Lanesboro. Four more cases have subsequently been found nearby and, in response, the DNR held a special hunt in the area to lower the deer population. The disease is spread by contact between deer, primarily through the saliva, urine and feces.

“We do think we’re on the front end of this infection,” Cornicelli said.

While the disease poses no danger to humans, Cornicelli said the economic impact in Minnesota that comes from hunting and raising deer has been estimated at $500 million.

Another infected farm

In addition to the six wild deer, the disease has also been identified in two deer that were part of a herd on a Crow Wing County farm, and another case was just found on a farm in Meeker County.

Dr. Paul Anderson, an assistant director with the Board of Animal Health, said that animal had grown up alongside the other infected deer.

WATCH Full video of Tuesday's meeting of the House Environment and Natural Resources Policy and Finance Committee 

He said his agency has identified three more farms – another in Crow Wing County, one in St. Louis County and one in Stearns County – that received deer from the infected farm. The board is concerned about several of those animals, which are now being tested, because they were also raised with the infected deer.

“It appears that something happened in that pen,” he said.

Anderson said no connection has been found between the farm infections and the infected deer in southeastern Minnesota.

“We’re in the middle of this investigation,” Anderson said. “Unfortunately, we have two farms now that are positive for chronic wasting disease.”

CWD in Minnesota

The Board of Animal Health has been working to fight the disease since the 1990s, and sporadic cases have been found on Minnesota cervidae farms since 2002, when an outbreak near Aitkin spurred laws that now require deer and elk farmers to test for the disease in any animal over the age of 16 months who dies.

Anderson said there are currently 460 farms around the state that raise a total of 11,000 deer and elk.

Along with movement restrictions on the farms where chronic wasting disease has been found, farms within 10 miles of infected animals found in the wild are also quarantined. Five farms in southeastern Minnesota now have such limits in place.