Hunting News

CWD response intensifies in southeastern Minnesota

CWD response intensifies in southeastern Minnesota

By Minnesota Department of Natural Resources

The Department of Natural Resources is taking additional steps to help limit the spread of chronic wasting disease in wild deer in southeastern Minnesota.

Eleven new cases of wild deer infected with the neurological disease were discovered this fall in or around the CWD disease management zone in Fillmore County.

In response, the DNR is opening two special hunts in December, providing shooting permits to landowners, conducting deer culling efforts in January, and holding a public meeting in Preston on Dec. 18.

Lou Cornicelli, wildlife research manager, said the CWD-positive cases indicate that the disease is persisting in this area, and the DNR needs to act quickly to contain the disease while it is relatively concentrated in a geographic area.

“The last thing people want is an established disease in their backyards,” Cornicelli said. “States that have CWD established in their wild deer populations have seen declines in both deer populations and deer hunter numbers. We’ll continue to do what we can to avoid that situation here.”

The disease management zone was established after CWD was discovered in wild deer near Preston in 2016. The zone is an approximately 10-mile radius around Preston.

To date, there have been 28 detected cases of the neurological disease within the CWD disease management zone, 11 of which were detected this fall. While the majority of positives remain within the disease management zone, discoveries of the disease just outside of the boundary are consistent with expected movement of bucks, which tend to travel alongside rivers during the breeding season.

Two separate three-day deer hunts in December will be held in and around the disease management zone. Details of these late-season hunts and boundary will be available Dec. 4 here.

DNR staff will reach out directly to landowners within the CWD management zone with information about providing shooting permits to landowners interested in removing deer from their property.

In mid-January, targeted culling will start as the DNR works with local landowners, and coordinates with the United States Department of Agriculture to remove deer from areas where CWD-positive deer were found.

On Dec. 18, the DNR will also have a public meeting in Preston to provide information about CWD and the DNR’s management response to its discovery. The meeting will be from 7 to 8:30 p.m. Tuesday in the Fillmore Central School Auditorium at 702 Chatfield St.

DNR researchers will also be surveying hunters and landowners throughout southeastern Minnesota. The study’s goal is to measure attitudes toward the disease and DNR management, and to measure support for potential management actions, including providing incentives to hunters and landowners to help curb disease spread.

Cornicelli said managing CWD is challenging because of how it spreads and persists in the deer population. For example, males are much more likely to have CWD than females; male deer also move the disease farther on the landscape because they typically travel longer distances, especially in the fall. So far this year, all 11 new detections are adult males.

Hunters can find CWD test results of deer tested through mandatory surveillance, as well as locations of positive test results and statistics here.

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