Minnesota's fight against chronic wasting disease (CWD) in deer has expanded following confirmed infections near Greenfield in western Hennepin County and Hawley in Clay County, which borders Fargo.

The positive test results were detected in antlered bucks harvested by hunters during the firearms season. The two findings will trigger new surveillance measures that will affect many deer hunters in Deer Permit Areas 266 and 701.

"This finding is concerning because it indicates possible new areas of CWD prevalence in wild deer where it hasn't previously been detected," said Erik Hildebrand, wildlife health supervisor with the Department of Natural Resources.

This week's announcement is the second blast of bad news in the past three weeks regarding the health of Minnesota's whitetail deer population. On Jan. 8., the DNR announced a startling increase in the prevalence of CWD in deer located in the state's southeastern corner. Because computer modeling now predicts the disease spreading to 15% of deer in that area in 2028, the DNR has canceled an offseason culling program there that was designed to keep the disease in check.

Following the latest detections, DNR will likely follow its oft-utilized CWD Response Plan calling for three years of testing deer harvested in the affected deer permit areas. The permit areas will be redrawn and categorized as CWD management zones. Typically in those zones, the DNR mandates CWD testing for any deer harvested during the opening weekend of the firearms season. If more positives are detected during the three-year sampling period, testing is extended.

Offseason culling of deer by landowners and federal sharpshooters is another common DNR control technique. Those thinning-of-the-herd practices are confined to small areas close to where the disease is detected. It's also normal for the DNR to ban wildlife watchers from feeding deer in the new management zones, as well as banning hunters from using attractants like deer urine. Both measures are meant to mitigate gatherings of deer. Close contact between the animals is considered a transmission route for CWD.

Hildebrand said the DNR doesn't know why the disease cropped up where it did. The CWD positive wild deer in Deer Permit Area 266 was shot close to the Buffalo River east of Fargo and west of Hawley, in the southwest corner of Clay County. It's about 54 miles from a previous positive near Climax, Minn.

The buck in Hennepin County was harvested near the Wright County line, 31 miles from where a CWD-positive deer was previously discovered in Dakota County.

With the new findings, DNR will expand its CWD surveillance this fall to an unprecedented 17 hunting zones. Two of those disease management zones – one near Bemidji and the other located north of Brainerd – would be dissolved after the hunting season if no new positives are detected.

Since 2010, Minnesota deer hunters have assisted the DNR in detecting CWD in 370 whitetail deer. The heaviest concentration of the disease, by far, is in the Driftless Area south of Rochester and Winona. In three of the region's deer permit areas, the disease has reached an endemic stage, the DNR has said.

The neurological animal disease is dreaded because of its proven potential to infect high percentages of deer and elk. According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, there is no direct evidence that CWD or a variant of the disease infects people. However, some experiments have raised the concern that CWD may pose a risk to people, and the agency advises people not to eat infected deer.

In Wisconsin, where CWD is more prevalent than in Minnesota, scientists recently reported that long-term prevalence of the disease has potential to reduce deer populations.