MINNEAPOLIS — Editor's note: The attached video originally aired on Sept. 22, 2021
An emergency rule from the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources is trying to reduce the spread of chronic wasting disease, or CWD, in Minnesota's while-tailed deer population.
Starting on Monday, Oct. 11, deer will not be allowed into Minnesota farms, and deer farmers will not be allowed to move animals within the state.
The DNR hopes this temporary ban will help them figure out the movements of known CWD-exposed deer and track potential additional exposures. The rules provide exemptions for deer being taken to slaughter and those being transported on a direct route through the state.
The Board of Animal Health, which shares concurrent authority with the DNR to regulate farmed white-tailed deer, will assist in the investigation.
“This disease poses a clear, immediate and serious threat to Minnesota’s wild deer, and these actions reflect what’s at stake,” said DNR Commissioner Sarah Strommen. “We are committed to doing everything we can to reduce the continued risk of CWD transmission in Minnesota, including from farmed deer to Minnesota’s wild whitetails.”
This comes after a CWD-positive farm in Wisconsin sent 387 farmed white-tails to operations in seven states. Three Minnesota farms got five animals from the infected farm. Two of those deer were moved back to Wisconsin because the Minnesota farms were no longer in business, and the other three were moved to an active farm.
Two of those three were killed and tested and were not positive for CWD. The third deer is still alive but has not yet been tested. The farm it lives on in currently under quarantine.