Mille Lacs Band DNR Partnering with U of M to Study CWD in 1837 Ceded Territory

No positive results to date

By VIVIAN LaMOORE, INAAJIMOWIN EDITOR

The Mille Lacs Band Department of Natural Resources has been partnering with the University of Minnesota Department of Fisheries, Wildlife, and Biology along with the Great Lakes Indian Fish and Wildlife Commission (GLIFWC) to assist in the study of Chronic Wasting Disease (CWD) in the deer population in Minnesota. The study includes testing of the prions in the limp nodes from harvested deer to monitor the spread of the disease and locate areas with positive test results. Jordan Williams, Mille Lacs Band DNR biologist, and LeRoy Day, Mille Lacs Band Lead Licensing Agent, were tasked with gathering deer heads of harvested deer to be tested by the U of M on tribal lands.

Testing deer helps determine how prevalent and areas where the disease is. The more deer that are tested helps determine the best management actions to take. Every sample submitted helps to provide critical information to support the long-term health of wild deer populations.

According to the MN DNR website, 30 deer have tested positive in Minnesota from July 1, 2022, to present. The most positive results were from the disease management zone, with 27 positive results. This zone includes deer permit areas of 604, 605, 643, 645, 646, 647, 648, 649, 655, 661, and 679. Those results do not include results from Mille Lacs, as the Mille Lacs testing was conducted through the University of Minnesota.

Mille Lacs Band sample submissions

In total, the Mille Lacs Band DNR received 47 deer heads for testing during the hunting season from September 4, 2022, through December 31, 2022.

The first batch collected from Mille Lacs Band members totaled 19 deer heads turned in. Results were returned in four weeks with no positive results.

The second batch collected from Mille Lacs Band members totaled 16 deer heads turned in. Results were returned in six weeks with no positive results.

The last batch collected from Mille Lacs Band members totaled nine deer heads turned in. The results have not been returned as of yet.

“This is good news for Band members who hunt on tribal lands and for Minnesota in general,” Williams said.

To date, there are no positive results in the 1837 ceded territory. The closest positive results are two reported in MN DNR permit area 604, which is in Crow Wing County.

Williams explained the disease is transmitted through prions, which are abnormal proteins that self-replicate within an infected animal. Prions are highly resistant to disinfectants, heat, or freezing. There are no vaccines or treatments for TSEs, and they are always fatal. They are believed to be excreted and transmitted through urine, feces, and saliva of an infected animal.

CWD is a neurological disease affecting the cervid family — deer, elk, moose, reindeer, and caribou. It causes characteristic spongy degeneration in the brain of an infected animal.

The disease is hard to detect in live animals in the wild. “It is kind of like a cancer, where it takes years to develop where you can actually see the signs, like head bobbing, walking in circles, those types of things,” Williams said. He added that symptoms can be seen in older, more mature deer, and not as much in younger deer. However, infected deer that are not showing symptoms can still transmit the disease to other deer.

“When you see a deer that is staggering a little bit, keeps the head down, and looks malnourished, or kind of sickly, that is when they are showing signs of CWD,” Day said. The DNR asks that if you do see a deer exhibiting those signs, you can report it to the DNR or a conservation officer.

Because CWD is spread through a deer’s contact with prions, understanding the natural social and movement behaviors of deer gives a better understanding of how the disease spreads between deer and to other deer populations. This information can help managers predict where the disease might show up next and plan management activities to minimize that spread.

The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) and other public health agencies have concluded there is no known link between CWD and any neurological disease in humans, and transmission to humans is extremely unlikely. However, an ongoing study by the Canadian Food Inspection Agency has demonstrated that by orally consuming muscle from deer naturally infected with CWD under experimental conditions, the disease can be transmitted to macaques (type of monkey). This unpublished finding has sparked renewed concerns about potential human health risks of eating CWD-contaminated venison. In separate work, also focused on susceptibility of macaques to CWD, Race et al. (2018) found no evidence of successful transmission. The reasons for this scientific ambiguity are unclear, but as a precaution, both the CDC and the World Health Organization recommend that humans do not consume any part of a known positive animal.

Blue pins indicate locations where the Minnesota DNR has indentified CWD positive results in Minnesota.