A deer killed by federal sharpshooters in a chronic wasting disease "hot zone" in southeastern Minnesota had holes and cuts on its ears indicating it may have escaped or been released from a captive deer farm, sources at the state Department of Natural Resources (DNR) said Thursday.
The discovery, made recently when the animal was shot during a culling operation to reduce chances the disease will spread to other whitetails, is under investigation by DNR conservation officers and wildlife biologists as the agency tries to explain the origin of the state's largest-ever outbreak of CWD in wild deer.
Tissue from the mysterious deer did not test positive for CWD, but the presence of a suspected farmed deer mingling with wild deer in the core of the outbreak area near Preston, Minn., is both intriguing and frustrating to wildlife officials and deer hunters. Both groups recently have expressed dismay over an alleged cozy relationship between Minnesota's commercial deer industry and its regulator, the state Board of Animal Health.
In an e-mail Wednesday to legislators, DNR Fish and Wildlife Division Director Jim Leach provided an overall update on CWD surveillance, including the finding of what "appears to be a formerly ear-tagged deer." Leach noted that the Board of Animal Health was notified and "we have asked for their cooperation in tracing this deer's origin."
Paul Anderson, who heads the farmed deer program at the Board of Animal Health, said Thursday he saw the DNR's photographs of the ear holes and cuts. "I don't know exactly what to think of that," he said.
Anderson said the board is not aware of any escaped deer in the area.
Lou Cornicelli, the DNR's top big-game researcher, said Thursday the agency isn't "pointing fingers" and continues to investigate three separate possible causes of the outbreak. One idea is that a CWD-infected deer wandered in from Wisconsin or Iowa. Another theory is that the infectious carcass of a CWD-infected deer shot in another state was brought to Minnesota and dumped in the woods.
Cornicelli said the possible ear-tagged deer is being investigated under the third scenario: Farmed deer may have escaped or were released into the wild, carrying CWD with them. Since 2002, there have been seven CWD outbreaks on Minnesota deer farms. The only previous CWD outbreak affecting wild deer in Minnesota happened in 2011, when a single whitetail was infected near a CWD-ridden elk farm in Pine Island.