MDC-positive Wisconsin deer farm sold animals in Minnesota and North Dakota, records show

According to an article in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, the Wisconsin farm where CWD was detected has sold nearly 400 deer to 40 farms in seven states over the past five years.

A highly contagious brain disease, CWD is always fatal to deer and other members of the deer family, including elk and moose.

Dr Beth Carlson, deputy state veterinarian for the North Dakota Animal Health Council, said on Wednesday (September 29th) that the agency was briefed on the situation in mid-August by the Department of Agriculture, Trade and Consumer Protection of Wisconsin.

The Wisconsin operation was allowed to ship deer to North Dakota, and the deer met all animal health import requirements, Carlson said in an email. Two Wisconsin deer have visited a single North Dakota farm, Shawn Schafer of Turtle Lake, ND, executive director of the North American Deer Farmers Association, said in a telephone interview.

The herd is under quarantine and the central North Dakota deer farm “is fully cooperating with our investigation,” Carlson said. “There is no evidence of MDC on the North Dakota farm.”

The North Dakota Animal Health Council will receive a more detailed update at its next meeting on October 6, she said.

In Minnesota, the state Department of Natural Resources contacted the Minnesota Board of Animal Health on Monday, September 27 to verify the authenticity of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel report, according to a press release from the DNR. The board confirmed that the deer farms in Stillwater and Clear Lake, Minnesota received a total of five deer from the Wisconsin farm between 2016 and 2017.

It is not known whether the deer were infected during their transfer to Minnesota, the DNR said.

“The news that Minnesota deer farms have imported deer from a farm in Wisconsin infected with MDC is extremely concerning,” MNR Commissioner Sarah Strommen said in a statement. “MNR is actively considering management responses to this latest threat to Minnesota’s wild deer. “

The Stillwater farm, which is now bankrupt, initially received two deer in 2016. The deer in early 2019 were moved to a farm in Grand Meadow, Minnesota, which is also now bankrupt.

The two deer were then transferred to a farm in Wisconsin in late 2019. The Minnesota DNR is working to determine whether these animals are still alive or are dead and have been tested.

A farm in Clear Lake, Minnesota, received three deer from the Wisconsin farm in the fall of 2017. Two of those deer were killed in early 2021, and CWD was not detected in them, said the DNR. The third deer is still alive. The owner waits for payment before making the animal available for testing. Right now, the entire Clear Lake herd is under quarantine.

Since 2002, the Minnesota DNR has tested over 90,000 wild deer for CWD and 115 white-tailed deer have tested positive. In North Dakota, the Game and Fish Department in January confirmed CWD in 44 wild deer since 2009, when the disease was first detected in southwestern North Dakota. This total includes 18 deer that tested positive for CWD during North Dakota’s 2020 hunting season, the Game and Fish Department said in January. The disease has not yet been found in eastern North Dakota.

North Dakota has 16 deer farms, 44 elk farms, three mixed herds and one reindeer herd, said Carlson, the state’s deputy veterinarian. Those numbers include zoos that display deer or elk, she said.

“Despite extensive testing (over 11,000 samples since 1998) CWD has never been suspected or confirmed in farmed deer or elk in North Dakota,” Carlson said.