Testing results from Minnesota’s 2020 hunting season and early 2021 special hunts confirmed chronic wasting disease in 22 wild deer, all within current disease management zones. CWD detections were found within two disease management zones.
In total, 7,682 samples were tested from hunter-harvested deer or opportunistic samples (deer killed by vehicles, reported sick or found dead). Nineteen of the positives were from deer in the southeast management zone and three were from the south metro management zone.
CWD was not detected in the north-central disease management zone, the southeast control zone, or the surveillance areas put in place for the 2020 hunting season. The surveillance areas added in 2020 were in east-central and west-central Minnesota, as well as a south metro surveillance area that surrounds the south metro management zone.
“Though CWD is detected in Minnesota’s wild deer, our recent test results show that the disease prevalence remains relatively low,” said Erik Hildebrand, wildlife health specialist. “Keeping deer healthy is our priority, and we continue to take aggressive action in areas where the disease has been detected in wild deer and monitor for the disease in areas where there are elevated risks for CWD.”
Some test results from the year’s management activities and any deer reported sick or dead are still pending; results will be updated on the DNR’s CWD webpage as they become available.
The DNR monitors CWD by testing wild deer. When the disease is detected in either captive or wild deer, the DNR establishes surveillance areas and tests wild deer for at least three years after the detection. This is because it can take 1 1/2 to 3 years before a deer shows clinical symptoms. If three consecutive years of test results fail to confirm CWD, and an adequate number of deer are sampled, the DNR will end surveillance in an area.
Details can be found in the CWD response plan.
n fall 2020, the DNR shifted to voluntary self-service sampling to facilitate social-distancing measures at sampling stations during the COVID-19 pandemic.
In areas where CWD-positive deer were detected, the DNR held two special hunts after the firearms hunting season and also provided landowners within a 3-mile radius of positive deer with shooting permits to further reduce deer densities.
From February through March, the DNR will work with the U.S. Department of Agriculture-Wildlife Services to complete targeted culling in focused areas where CWD has been detected in wild deer. Venison from these deer that do not test positive for CWD will be donated through the Share the Harvest program.