Minnesota Tests Abandoned Fawns for Chronic Wasting Disease

ST. PAUL, Minnesota, May 13, 2004 (ENS) - The Minnesota Department of Natural Resources (DNR) is asking people to refrain from picking up fawns that appear to be abandoned this spring.

Because of the risk of chronic wasting disease, the agency has announced a two year moratorium on raising and releasing deer back into the wild. All fawns picked up and turned in will be euthanized to prevent the spread of the fatal brain wasting disease in the same family as mad cow disease.

"In the past, we've always recommended that people leave wild animals - especially deer - alone. It's especially important this year," said Mike DonCarlos, DNR wildlife research manager. "In nearly all cases, whitetail does have intentionally left the fawns alone to avoid attracting attention of predators."

The possibility of spreading chronic wasting disease prompted the DNR to amend licenses that allowed wildlife rehabilitators to raise wild whitetail deer. These deer were often fawns thought to be abandoned and picked up by well meaning people.

Under the moratorium, wildlife rehabilitators licensed to possess live deer will be required to transfer deer to the DNR within 48 hours. Deer that are transferred to the DNR will be euthanized and tested for chronic wasting disease. There is no test for the disease in live animals.

Each year, about 80 deer are turned over to rehabilitators. About half of those deer are euthanized immediately for humane reasons. Deer that are successfully rehabilitated are often moved to rehabilitation facilities and eventually released far from their birth site.

There are about 70 wildlife rehabilitators who are licensed to possess live deer for 48 hours.

In recent surveillance testing for chronic wasting disease in Wisconsin, six fawns, ages five to 12 months, tested positive for the disease. All of the fawns came from the core areas of chronic wasting disease eradication within Wisconsin, where the highest number of deer with the disease have been identified.

The moratorium on white tailed deer rehabilitation will be reviewed in two years, when the major portion of the state’s chronic wasting disease surveillance program is complete.

Chronic wasting disease naturally occurs in North American deer and Rocky Mountain elk. It belongs to a group of infectious diseases known as transmissible spongiform encephalopathies that are caused by an abnormal protein called a prion which affects the animal's brain and is invariably fatal. Usually, months to years pass from the time an animal is infected to when it shows signs of the disease.

The disease was first discovered in Colorado and Wyoming, and has since been detected in wild or captive animals in South Dakota, Nebraska, Kansas, Oklahoma, New Mexico, Montana, Wisconsin, Saskatchewan and Alberta.