Potential Minnesota CWD case could threaten Iowa deer

A preliminary positive test for chronic wasting disease in a Minnesota deer could raise the level of concern about the fatal nerve ailment in Iowa, according to Tom Litchfield, deer biologist for the Iowa Department of Natural Resources.

The Minnesota Department of Natural Resources said a preliminary test strongly indicates a deer harvested by a hunter in November near Pine Island, about 60 miles north of the Iowa border, suffered from chronic wasting disease.

That initial diagnosis must be confirmed by the National Veterinary Services Laboratory in Ames, with results expected next week.

Although the Minnesota DNR has detected the disease in captive elk, it has never been found in the state's wild deer herd.

The disease has been found among wild deer in Wisconsin and Illinois, across the Mississippi River from Iowa.

"A line in the dirt is all that separates Iowa from Minnesota," Litchfield said.

If the disease is confirmed in Minnesota, the Iowa DNR will increase its sampling of deer in border counties such as Winneshiek and Howard, Litchfield said.

For the past several years, the DNR has tested about 4,000 deer per year for CWD and has yet to record a positive.  Most of those samples have been collected in northeast Iowa in counties bordering the Mississippi River, Litchfield said.

The DNR has just begun submitting samples from the 2010-11 hunting seasons, with results expected around the end of March.

The DNR has focused extra attention this year on samples from Wayne and Appanoose counties in sothern Iowa in response to a positive CWD test from a captive deer in northern Missouri, Litchfield said.