Second deer shot this fall south of Crookston tests CWD-positive
Dec. 8—A whitetail buck shot last month south of Crookston near Climax, Minnesota, that initially tested "suspect" for chronic wasting disease has now been confirmed as positive, based on secondary testing conducted whenever a tissue sample comes back as suspect.
The confirmed diagnosis, reported on the
Minnesota Department of Natural Resources website,
marks the
second deer to test positive in the Climax area this fall — and the third since November 2021 — for the brain disease that's fatal to deer, elk and moose. Earlier, a yearling doe taken during the opening weekend of Minnesota's firearms deer season tested positive for CWD.
Both deer were shot north of the area where an adult buck tested positive in the fall of 2021.
Hunters in Deer Permit Area (DPA) 661 on the Minnesota side of the Red River were required to have their deer tested for CWD during the opening weekend of Minnesota's firearms deer season Nov. 4-5.
The DNR created DPA 661 (formerly 261) and designated it as a special CWD management zone in 2022 after the buck near Climax tested positive the previous fall.
The hunter who shot the most recent buck to test positive wasn't required to have it tested, since he didn't shoot it opening weekend, but had it sampled voluntarily through a program the DNR offers with various partners.
To date, the DNR has sampled 183 deer in DPA 661, with only one result pending as of Thursday, Dec. 7; the other 180 deer tested negative.
According to DNR statistics,
252 wild deer have tested positive for CWD in Minnesota since 2010.
Across the Red River, the North Dakota Game and Fish Department is conducting volunteer CWD surveillance in Unit 2B, a large deer hunting unit that runs along the Red River from Grand Forks to south of Fargo and extends about 30 miles west. To date, the Game and Fish Department hasn't reported any cases of CWD in 2B or results from this fall's surveillance effort.
