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A public meeting Monday from 7-9 p.m. to discuss the DNR's operation to sample as many as 900 deer in southeast Minnesota for chronic wasting disease (CWD) will be held at Pine Island High School.
DNR staff will be on hand, as will representatives of the Board of Animal Health and the Minnesota Deer Hunters Association.
More than 180 permits have been issued to landowners to shoot deer for testing in an area generally within 10 miles of Pine Island. The DNR says so far 120 deer, including some killed by vehicles, have been tested. All have been negative for CWD.
Concern about a CWD outbreak followed the discovery that a doe killed Nov. 28 by an archer hunting not far from Pine Island was infected with CWD.
Aerial surveys by the DNR indicate about 20 deer per square mile inhabit the area within a 5-mile radius of where the infected deer was killed. Near a former commercial elk farm in the area where four animals were found to be infected with CWD in 2009 as many as 83 deer per square mile were counted.
People interested in possibly receiving surplus deer killed that test negative can send an e-mail to the DNR to be put on a list. Names, phone numbers and e-mail addresses should be e-mailed to cwddonation.dnr@state.mn.us.
