Minnesota temporarily bans movement of farmed deer over CWD

Published 7:30 am Tuesday, December 24, 2019

MINNEAPOLIS — The Minnesota Department of Natural Resources on Monday temporarily banned the movement of all farmed white-tailed deer within the state to try to limit the spread of a fatal brain disease.

The DNR issued the order in response to the recent discovery of chronic wasting disease in a captive deer at a hobby farm in Douglas County of west-central Minnesota. The emergency rule will be in effect for 30 days.

The DNR said the hobby farm has connections to other Minnesota deer farms, so the state needs time to investigate other farms that either provided deer to, or received deer from, the hobby farm.

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CWD was first detected in Minnesota in 2002. Since then, the DNR has tested more than 90,000 wild deer. The agency said 73 wild deer have been confirmed positive for the disease in Minnesota so far.