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The Minnesota Department of Natural Resources has confirmed cases of chronic wasting disease in two new areas. One deer was harvested near Hawley in Clay County and the other near Greenfield in Hennepin County. 

DNR wildlife health supervisor Erik Hildebrand said both deer were bucks harvested during the firearm season. 

“Adult males are three times more likely to have CWD. That’s mostly due to their behavior, especially during the rut, when they’re interacting with a lot more males, but also females,” he said. “So, interacting with a lot more deer.” 

Hildebrand said both samples were submitted by hunters through the DNR’s CWD partner sampling program. 

“Which is mostly made up of taxidermists across the state that are trained to collect the lymph node tissue from deer that come into their business," he said.  

The addition of these cases means there are now three new areas where CWD has been confirmed. In December the DNR confirmed a case of CWD in Traverse County near Wheaton harvested over the opening weekend of the firearm season. 

“All three of these areas will be following our CWD response plan which has a CWD management zone that will be established and set up. Within that zone there’ll be some management requirements, such as carcass movement restrictions so hunters will not be able to move intact carcasses if the deer is harvested in that zone.” 

However, he said some parts of the deer will be permitted to be moved outside of the zone immediately after harvest. There will also be some mandatory sampling requirements in the zones to test the prevalence of the disease in those areas. 

Hildebrand credited the state’s hunters for being proactive in helping manage the disease which is always fatal in deer. And he offered some tips.  

“I want to put a shout out to the hunters this past fall that helped out by providing a sample,” he said. “Going forward for what hunters may be faced with if their area is in a CWD surveillance zone for fall of 2025, just take a peek at the DNR hunting regulations booklet or the DNR website.” 

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Mathew Holding Eagle III

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The Minnesota Department of Natural Resources reported the discovery of chronic wasting disease in two new areas of the state. The deer infected with the always-fatal disease were identified during testing of samples gathered during the recent firearms season.

two people in protective gear work in a laboratory

CWD detected in two new areas of the state

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