CWD found in Olmsted County elk

(AP) - The Minnesota Board of Animal Health says that a farmed elk from Olmsted County has tested positive for chronic wasting disease, triggering a quarantine.

This quarantine means no deer, elk or similar animals can move on or off the farm. Investigators are trying to determine the source of the infection and if has been spread.

The Board of Animal Health quarantined the herd on Friday after nerve tissue from the animal was tested at the U.S. Agriculture Department's lab in Ames, Iowa.

Since 2003, Minnesota has required that when farmed deer or elk over 16 months old are slaughtered a sample must be submitted for CWD testing.

CWD is a fatal brain and nervous system disease that threatens the state's 650 farms where deer or elk are raised commercially.

(Copyright 2009 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)

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