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Deer Lymph Nodes Extracted at Dundee for Chronic Wasting Disease Study


	By: Norma Dittman, staff writer	November 10, 2004

Fulda Free Press/ Submitted Chris and Dennis Opdahl along with Judy Markl watche as Janean Romines removes the Lymph nodes from a deer.	A three-year surveillance program to study Chronic Wasting Disease

A three-year surveillance program to study Chronic Wasting Disease in Minnesota deer reached Dundee this past weekend.

Brenda's Gas and Grocery, a big game registration station functioned as a monitoring station in cooperation with the United States Department of Agriculture and the Department of Natural Resources to provide the information to be used in this year's study.

As local hunters brought in deer for registration, they were asked to participate in the lymph node extraction from the deer's neck. Hunters needed to be able to identify on a map the location where their deer was killed. The deer needed to be from a permit area that the DNR is sampling as well as being at least one and one-half years of age.

Taking the lymph node samples, were DNR personnel Judy Markl, assistant manager at the Talcot Wildlife Refuge, and Dennis Opdahl, Janean Romines, a Wildlife Disease Biologist with the United States Department of Agriculture from Austin, Texas, and Robbie Walsh from the Three Rivers Park District of the Minnesota Conservation Corporation at St. Paul, Minnesota.

According to Romines, six USDA wildlife disease biologists from Texas, Arizona, Colorado, Wyoming, Illinois, and California were asked to assist the Minnesota DNR with the lymph node extractions. "All six of us are trained for lymph node extractions and were asked by the offices in St. Paul to lend a hand here in Minnesota with this CWD monitoring study," Romines said. "I received the privilege of being assigned to the Dundee area. We've done several extractions already today on some pretty good sized animals."

Describing chronic wasting disease, Markl explained, "Chronic Wasting Disease or CWD is a degenerative brain disease. It will actually put holes in the brain of a deer."

For more than three years, the Minnesota DNR has been testing suspect deer that have been found sick or displaying symptoms consistent with CWD. During the first two years of the study (2002 and 2003), 14,450 lymph node samples were collected in 70 permit areas. To date, all samples tested were negative for CWD, according to DNR information.

CWD has been found present in both Wisconsin and South Dakota, according to Markl.

The DNR offers some basic guidelines for deer meat handling and consumption that have been outlined by the Minnesota Department of Health: 1) Don't eat meat from animals that look sick or ill, 2) Don't eat the brain, spinal cord, eyes, spleen, tonsils and lymph nodes, 3) Dress the animal properly -- minimize handling of brain and spinal tissues, wear rubber gloves when field dressing carcasses and wash hands and instruments thoroughly after field dressing is complete.

"Hunters who cooperate in the study receive a deer patch which states '2004 Minnesota Deer Research Cooperative'," Markl stated. "It's the DNR's expression of thanks to the hunters who are helping us gather the information which is needed for the study."

Besides receiving the deer patch, hunters are also automatically registered for a drawing which includes donations of over 20 shotguns, rifles, muzzle loaders and bows - all donated by Gander Mountain, the MN Deer Hunters Association, the Bluffland Whitetails Association, the MN State Archery Association, Austin & Halleck, Cabelas and the Sportmans Warehouse.

The DNR will be sampling lymph nodes during this next weekend's hunt, also, according to Markl. "Brenda's Gas and Grocery opens at 7 a.m. and we'll be here and set-up shortly after that," she said. "We appreciate all of the cooperation we've been receiving with the sampling for the research. The hunters have been great about letting us do the (lymph node) extractions. Once the information is entered in the database, the results show up in about a month. We've had all negative results so far for CWD, and we want to keep it that way."