DNR offers landowner permit to shoot deer, but hunters will play the biggest role in obtaining samples for testing; some locals say they haven't gotten enough information.

The Minnesota Department of Natural Resources plans to rely on hunters in its effort to sample deer for bovine tuberculosis in Roseau County this fall, but landowners in the affected area near Skime, Minn., say they're mostly in the dark about what's happening.

"If everybody knew what was going on around here, it would ease their minds," said Dan Olson of Skime, who lives near the farm where some animals in a cattle herd tested positive for bovine TB earlier this summer. "Some people say, 'I don't even dare hunt deer.'"

Bovine TB has been a dominant topic of discussion among hunters and landowners in the area since July 12, when the Minnesota Board of Animal Health announced the disease had been detected in a Roseau County cattle herd. News reports later named Roger Skime as owner of the herd. Skime's 1,000-animal herd eventually will be "depopulated," but, for now, it remains under quarantine, along with 17 other herds in Beltrami, Goodhue, Polk and Roseau counties.

Click here for the entire story.

Source: Grand Folks Herald, Brad Dokken
August 21, 2005

Back to Hot Topics