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Minnesota News
Mathew Holding Eagle III

CWD discovered for the first time in western Minnesota

Red dye used in the testing process only sticks to the misfolded proteins
Red dye used in the testing process only sticks to the misfolded proteins, called prions, that cause chronic wasting disease.
John Enger | MPR News

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The Minnesota Department of Natural Resources has confirmed chronic wasting disease in a wild deer harvested in Traverse County in the western part of the state during the opening weekend of firearm season.

The sample, gathered on the opening weekend of the firearms season, came from an adult buck near Wheaton, by the state’s border with eastern South Dakota.

CWD has not previously been detected in that area. 

Erik Hildebrand, the wildlife health program supervisor for the DNR, says the DNR will work closely with North Dakota and South Dakota management teams to decide the best course of action going forward. This will also include internal discussions which follow the state’s CWD response plan for initial detection in a new area. 

“We’ll have those discussions this coming winter and early spring and see about where surveillance should occur, get more information likely for next fall,” he said. “Do we have a bigger issue in this part of the state or is it, a very, very low issue or maybe it’s even an issue outside of our Minnesota borders?” 

Hildebrand said Minnesota’s surveillance of CWD is more robust than that of the South Dakota Department of Game, Fish and Parks. And while North Dakota does more CWD monitoring than its southern neighbor, it’s not necessarily in the part of the state adjacent to the area where Minnesota’s new case was found.  

“Where they have detected disease so far has been mostly in that western part of the Dakotas,” he said.  

The CWD positive sample was provided voluntarily by a hunter through the DNR’s partner sampling program. Hildebrand said the service is free to hunters and without it the disease would not have been discovered as quickly. The DNR lists its partners on its CWD page.  

“We have an interactive mapping tool that you can essentially zoom into either your home or wherever in the state and see where the nearest partner is,” he said. “There’s some contact information there that you can call the partner and make a plan ahead of time.” 

The DNR runs this year’s CWD late season hunt Dec. 20-22 in select deer permit areas. Its goal is “to assess disease prevalence and to help mitigate the risk of CWD transmission by reducing the number of deer.” They report that while the bag limit for this hunt is unlimited 98 precent of successful hunters only took one or two deer each during 2023.