ST. PAUL, Minnesota (AP) – Minnesota wildlife managers imposed a nationwide ban on the movement of farmed white-tailed deer from June 1 to late July in order to control an outbreak of the chronic waste disease that threatens the state’s wild game population.
The ban is designed to curb the spread of the always fatal brain disease that can spread when captive deer are transferred from infected herds to farms in other parts of the state and passed on to wild deer, Minnesota Public Radio reported.
“We want to make sure we can protect the wild herd by tracking down all of the infected breeding deer in the state,” said Sarah Strommen, commissioner for the Department of Natural Resources. “And that’s a lot harder when they’re still moving.”
Thirteen deer in a breeding herd in Beltrami County, northern Minnesota, recently tested positive for chronic wasting disease. It is spread through prions or abnormal proteins in animals’ body fluids. Prions can also remain viable in the soil for several years long after an infected animal dies and its carcass has decomposed, thereby continuing the cycle of infection.
Investigators checking the Beltrami County’s farm found that infected deer carcasses were dumped on nearby public land, increasing the risk to wildlife in the area. Investigators believe the herd was infected by animals that came from a herd in Winona County, an area in far southeastern Minnesota where CWD is considered endemic.
An already worrying situation has become much more urgent, Strommen said, now that an outbreak has been detected in the northern forests of Minnesota.
“You have something now several hundred miles from where we treated the core of this disease, in a place that really is the heart of Minnesota’s Deer Country,” Strommen said.
While no disease has been detected in wild game populations in Beltrami County, the farm outbreak there raises concerns significantly, said Dave Olfelt, director of DNR Fish and Wildlife Division, who lives in Grand Rapids.
“We didn’t have to think about chronic diseases in this part of the world. (But) now we do. It’s a real eye opener for Minnesotans,” he said.
Officials warn people not to eat infected deer. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention say there is “no strong evidence of the occurrence of CWD in humans,” but adds that “experimental studies raise concerns that CWD may pose a risk to humans and that it is important to prevent human exposure to CWD. “
