What Minnesota Hunters Need to Know about Chronic Wasting Disease

Transcript

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HOST: You're listening to North Star Stories: Voices from Where We Live. Today in Minnesota…

ANCHOR: …Minnesota targets illegal online gambling sites. Then, a growing disease has hunters and officials looking for solutions, and important information for Minnesotans who don't have medical insurance through their employer.

I'm Chantel SinGs.

Minnesota's Attorney General is shutting down fourteen gambling websites. The sites include social sweepstakes casinos and platforms offering sports betting, poker, and other online gambling. The Attorney General's office says the websites may be violating Minnesota's consumer-protection and wagering laws. State officials say unregulated gambling sites offer no consumer protections, and people using the websites within the state have no guarantees that winnings will be paid out or that games are fair.

In today's main story, the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources and Tribal partners are strategizing ways to address Chronic Wasting Disease, a growing concern for Minnesota's deer hunters. Maija Hecht has the story.

Maija Hecht: Deer hunting is a rite of passage or traditional lifeway for many Minnesotans. The recent emergence of Chronic Wasting Disease, or CWD, is changing the way many hunt in the Northwoods.

Tanya Rourke: When I first started out working for the band about seven years ago, I always thought we had probably a decade plus before we'd even have to worry about CWD being up in northern Minnesota.

Maija Hecht: Tanya Rourke is the wildlife program director for the Leech Lake Band of Ojibwe's Resource Management Division.

Tanya Rourke: Then all of a sudden, when there was the cervid farm northwest of Bemidji, it became a very real concern for us.

Maija Hecht: A cervid farm is a facility that raises deer, elk, and moose as livestock.

Erik Hildebrand: Chronic Wasting Disease, or CWD, it's a neurologic disease of the cervid family.

Maija Hecht: Erik Hildebrand is the Wildlife Health Supervisor with the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources, or DNR, which has implemented statewide testing to prevent the spread of CWD—and help hunters avoid consuming meat from infected animals.

Erik Hildebrand: In Minnesota, we are on the front end of an infection, meaning that when a hunter harvests a deer, and if it tests positive for CWD, it is a presumably healthy looking animal.

Maija Hecht: Although the disease is not known to infect humans, officials say you shouldn't eat infected venison.

Erik Hildebrand: The incubation period of the disease is one and a half to three years before clinical signs set in, clinical signs being emaciation, incoordination, drooling, stumbling and unafraid of people.

Maija Hecht: For hunters who would like to test their deer, Erik says there are a few options.

Erik Hildebrand: On the DNR website, we have hunter mail-in kits. A hunter can simply go to the website, log their information, and we will ship a kit directly to them. All the instructions and a prepaid shipping label are provided.

Maija Hecht: For testing, hunters need to save neurologic tissue, such as the deer's head or lymph nodes, which can be frozen prior to testing. If hunters would rather not deal with mail—

Erik Hildebrand: They could contact any DNR wildlife office across the state and set up a time to get the sample pulled from their harvest.

Maija Hecht: This year, over 7000 deer have been tested across Minnesota, in collaboration with five of the 11 Tribal nations that share its geography. Tanya Rourke says—

Tanya Rourke: A large part of that success was because of all the tribes coming together and starting up this Tribal CWD network across the state.

Maija Hecht: A major focus of that network is proper disposal because CWD 'prions,' the molecular protein that causes illness, remain infectious in soil even after a deer decomposes.

Tanya Rourke: It is hard when you're used to like, putting the animal back to the environment. You want to give that back to nature. It's a big risk to do that when you're dealing with CWD.

Maija Hecht: Instead, DNR and Tribal Nations are providing Dumpsters for infected carcasses. Statewide testing and disposal locations are available online at the DNR's website.

Maija Hecht: Maija Hecht for North Star Stories.

Anchor: You are listening to North Star Stories.

MNsure, the official health insurance marketplace for Minnesota, has officially opened enrollment for 2026 health insurance, giving Minnesotans without employer coverage a chance to compare plans and access financial help. Farmers, small business owners, early retirees and others can use MNsure to estimate costs and see if they qualify for tax credits. Coverage, starting January 1, 2026, requires enrollment by December 15, while coverage beginning February 1 must be selected by January 15, 2026. Minnesotans can get application and enrollment help from health insurance experts at no cost at the MNsure website.

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HOST: North Star Stories is produced by AMPERS, diverse radio for Minnesota's communities, with support from the McKnight Foundation and the State of Minnesota. Online at ampers dot org.