A Crow Wing County, Minn., deer farm that was found to be infected with chronic wasting disease in 2016 has been depopulated, according to the Minnesota Board of Animal Health.

MBAH officials in a news release said that USDA is providing indemnity to the owner for the animals as part of its overall disease control effort. The agency is coordinating with USDA to collect tissue samples for CWD testing and will report results when they become available.

“We anticipate receiving CWD testing results from the USDA’s National Veterinary Services Laboratory within the coming weeks,” says Linda Glaser, MBAH’s assistant director. “We’ve already developed a herd plan with the owner on how to handle the property now that the deer are gone. At this point, any CWD positive results do not change our disease response because we already know the site held CWD-positive deer and have been treating it as such.”

The Crow Wing County deer herd was the only CWD-positive farm in the state operating under a herd plan with live animals. As of this depopulation, all CWD-positive deer farms in the state are empty. Following depopulation, sites are managed in accordance with USDA and MBAH-approved herd plans.

MBAH continues mandatory CWD monitoring in all other farmed cervid herds and has no CWD positive detections as of last week.

All farmed cervidae producers in Minnesota are required to test their herds for CWD. From each herd, all farmed cervidae 12 months of age and older that die or are slaughtered must be tested for CWD. Tissue samples are tested for CWD at the University of Minnesota Veterinary Diagnostic Laboratory.

In order to maintain accurate CWD surveillance information, producers must report all deer or elk that die or are moved out of the herd to other locations to MBAH.

CWD is a disease of the deer and elk family caused by an abnormally shaped protein, a prion, which can damage brain and nerve tissue. The disease is most likely transmitted when infected deer and elk shed prions in saliva, feces, urine, and other fluids or tissues. CWD is not known to naturally occur in other animals. The disease is fatal in deer and elk, and there are no known treatments or vaccines. Consuming infected meat is not advised.

Source: Minnesota Board of Animal Health, which is solely responsible for the information provided and is wholly owned by the source. Informa Business Media and all its subsidiaries are not responsible for any of the content contained in this information asset.