CWD test mandatory for s/e MN deer

[Lee Borgersen]

 CWD test mandatory for southeastern Minnesota deer
harvested during this weekend's youth deer season

Youth who harvest a deer from Permit Area 602 in southeastern Minnesota during the youth deer season Thursday, Oct. 18, to Sunday, Oct. 21, must register their deer at one of four sites for mandatory Chronic Wasting Disease (CWD) testing.

The four registration stations are:

Neptune Bar and Grill, 468 Minnesota Highway 60, Zumbro Falls.
Archery Headquarters, 3440 Northern Valley Place Northeast, Rochester.
Hardware Hank, 11 Fourth St. SE, Kasson.
The Greenway Co-op, 100 North Main St., Pine Island.

Stations will not be staffed. Hunters will need to fill out an information form at the registration station and deposit the harvested deer's entire head in an onsite box. Hunters can leave a note on the form if they want to make arrangements to have the head returned.

Minnesota Department of Natural Resources (DNR) wildlife staff will retrieve registered deer on Monday, Oct. 22. CWD results will be available online at www.mndnr.gov/cwd later in the week. The carcass must remain in Permit Area 602 until a negative test result is reported.

Additional information regarding registration, sample submission and carcass also is available on the DNR website. Hunters are strongly encouraged to monitor this site as new information is added when it becomes available.

The DNR has been actively on the lookout for CWD since 2002, when the disease was first found in a domestic elk farm in central Minnesota. Surveillance efforts increased in southeastern Minnesota during fall 2009 after tests in January 2009 determined that four captive elk on a farm near Pine Island were infected with CWD. Heightened surveillance efforts continue, but annual tests of hunter-harvested deer have detected only one positive result, which occurred in 2010.