Deer to be tested for bovine TB in NW Minn. again
With the hunting season approaching, officials in northwestern Minnesota remain on guard against bovine tuberculosis in deer.
The Minnesota Department of Natural Resources is asking hunters who harvest deer in and near the bovine TB management zone to register their deer at one of the 18 stations where officials can take tissue samples for testing.
Last year, only one deer of the nearly 2,000 deer tested returned positive results. But the state needs to keep watch until no deer test positive for five consecutive years. The state has been trying to eradicate the disease since it turned up in some cattle in Roseau County in 2005.
The DNR hopes to meet a goal of collecting 1,000 samples from the surveillance area, which includes corners of Roseau, Marshall, Beltrami and Lake of the Woods counties.
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(Copyright 2010 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
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