Outdoor Insights: Why can’t deer build immunity to CWD?

My son and I were lamenting how the deer permit area we hunt in southeast Minnesota suddenly has become ground zero for new chronic wasting disease infections.
As of Tuesday, Dec. 17, there were 81 new CWD cases in Minnesota this year, a 69% increase from the 48 found in 2023. All but one have been in roughly a half dozen DPAs in the southeast, and the DNR has called the increase “statistically significant.”
For years, the state has done a solid job of suppressing and preventing CWD from becoming the disaster we see across the Mississippi, but I fear 2024 marks a tipping point in this losing battle.

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