Minnesota
As deer season opens, CWD cases in Minnesota continue slow rise
Chronic wasting disease, a neurodegenerative disease that affects deer and other hooved mammals like elk, causes lethargy and weight loss. It is always fatal.
Infected animals spread prions, the infectious agent, through saliva, urine, feces, blood, antler velvet and from the carcass after death, but the spread is not fully understood. Prions are resistant to heat, disinfectants and decomposition.
One recent study by Minnesota and Wisconsin researchers suggested that infected deer ticks swallowed by deer during social grooming may be one way that the disease jumps from animal to animal, according to a 2023 Minnesota Star Tribune report.
The first case of CWD in Minnesota was in a farmed elk in 2002 in Aitkin County. Incidents of the disease began appearing in wild whitetail deer in 2010.
The Minnesota DNR’s deer permit areas govern rules on tracking CWD into two types of zones, designed to track the progression of the disease in deer herds.