The elk farm north of Rochester.

[Cheetah]

The Star Tribune has an interesting article up about the elk farm that was on Hwy 52 north of Rochester. I knew they sold off the land for development of a large bioscience complex, but apparently there is more to it.

I always enjoyed slowing down to look at the big bulls every time I went to and from Rochester. The last year or so they were nowhere to be seen while the land was being plowed over. I assumed they were sold to another farm or something. Apparently they were just corralled away from the road and CWD was found.

http://www.startribune.com/local/60059847.html

Quote:

Sharpshooters begin destroying elk herd

In January, a female at the farm near Pine Island was found to have CWD, a fatal brain disease. A USDA agency is killing all 700 elk.

By DOUG SMITH, Star Tribune

Last update: September 22, 2009 - 7:40 AM

Federal sharpshooters have begun destroying a herd of about 700 elk on a farm in southeastern Minnesota where chronic wasting disease (CWD) was discovered this year.

Sharpshooters with the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Wildlife Services shot elk Friday and Monday on the farm off Hwy. 52 near Pine Island, after the federal agency reached an agreement with the herd's owners concerning compensation and cleanup. A cow elk at Elk Farm LLC -- the largest such farm in the state -- was found to have the disease in January, and the herd has been quarantined since.

The 1,300-acre farm was purchased in 2006 by Tower Investments of Woodland, Calif., and is part of 2,300 acres the firm plans to develop north of Rochester for a bioscience research and manufacturing center called Elk Run. It would include 15 to 25 bioscience companies, as well as offices, shops and homes, officials say.

"This is very sad situation for all of us at Tower Investments," project manager Geoff Griffin said.

"But it's totally out of our control. The good thing is, it does not affect our development."

All of the elk will be killed over the next 10 days or so and tested for the fatal brain disease, then will be disposed of, said Paul Anderson, assistant director of the Minnesota Board of Animal Health. None of the meat can be salvaged for human consumption.

"There's no evidence that it causes disease in people," Anderson said, "but with a known infected herd, we just would not take any risks with humans."

Tower Investments will be compensated for the animals by the Agriculture Department. Federal officials said Monday that they're unsure what the total cost will be.

To prevent the spread of CWD to wild deer, the top couple of inches of topsoil on the farm will be removed and stored behind a fenced area for five years, Anderson said. Tower Investments will pay for that, he said. "Normally, we'd require that fences stay up [on a farm] for five years," Anderson said, "but because of the need to develop that land, they will remove the soil and pile it up behind a fence for five years."

3,000 deer to be tested

The Department of Natural Resources also plans to test 3,000 deer for CWD that are expected to be killed by hunters this fall in southeastern Minnesota. The testing, which will cost more than $200,000, was prompted by the presence of CWD at the Pine Island elk farm and by the proximity of deer in the region to Wisconsin, where wild deer have been infected with CWD, said Ed Boggess, DNR policy section chief. The U.S. Department of Agriculture will pay about $70,000 of the cost, he said.

Though no elk have escaped from the Pine Island farm, Anderson said two wild deer somehow managed to get inside the fenced farm and were destroyed. Since the disease was first found in the state in a captive elk herd in 2002, DNR officials have been concerned that it could spread to Minnesota's approximately 1 million wild deer. There are about 20,000 captive deer and elk in the state, and the disease can be spread through nose-to-nose contact. The infected elk at Pine Island was the sixth captive deer or elk in the state found to have CWD.

The DNR has tested more than 30,000 wild deer, and none has tested positive.

The Pine Island elk farm has been an icon in the area for years, and the elk often were seen by drivers on busy Hwy. 52. The farm was owned by brothers John and Karl Hoehne. Karl Hoehne declined to comment Monday, and John Hoehne couldn't be reached.

Though the long-standing elk farm would have been phased out as development occurred, Griffin, the project manager, said that Tower Investments had intended to keep some elk there, and that that still might happen, even after the herd is destroyed. "We're going to wait five years, just to be safe," he said, and possibly add elk later to some enclosures on the site.

Meanwhile, Griffin said water and sewer lines are being laid at the development and that the state is expected to let bids for a Hwy. 52 interchange there. He said construction of some bioscience buildings should begin next year.

[mrklean]

so what will be done with the meat and everything if no cwd is found? Toss it away? If so what a waste

[Cheetah]

so what will be done with the meat and everything if no cwd is found? Toss it away? If so what a waste

Yep, they don't want to risk anyone having even a remote possibility of getting sick from it.

[Cheetah]

The Post Bulletin in Rochester has another article.

http://www.postbulletin.com/newsmanager/templates/localnews_story.asp?z=2&a=417249

Quote:

USDA to exterminate elk herd

9/22/2009 10:53:04 AM

Comments (39)

By Laura Gossman Horihan

Post-Bulletin, Rochester MN

PINE ISLAND -- Rifle shooters from the U.S. Department of Agriculture's wildlife service division began killing elk exposed to chronic wasting disease at an elk farm near Pine Island on Friday.

A female elk tested positive for chronic wasting disease last January. Such testing can't be done on live animals, so the entire herd is being destroyed.

Minnesota Board of Animal Health program director Paul Anderson said Monday that USDA staff will shoot the roughly 700 elk over the next 10 to 11 days. The elk and elk farm are owned by Elk Farm LLC.

Tower Investments Inc. purchased the 1,300-acre farm from brothers John and Karl Hoehne. The 2,300-acre stretch of land near Pine Island is part of a plan to develop a bioscience research and manufacturing center called the Elk Run Biobusiness Park.

Elk Run project manager Geoff Griffin told the Star Tribune the current situation won't affect the development.

The rifle shooters have been going out to the farm at night, when the animals are calm, to shoot the elk, which are kept in a large fenced-in area.

Anderson said 30 to 70 animals will be shot each day.

The staff will also be collecting samples from the elk, which will be sent to the USDA's National Veterinary Services Laboratory in Ames, Iowa.

Chronic wasting disease is a fatal brain and nervous-system disease sometimes found in members of the deer and elk family in parts of North America. The disease is cause by an abnormally shaped protein called a prion, which can damage nerve tissue. Infected animals show progressive loss of body weight with accompanying behavioral changes, eventually leaving them in an emaciated, staggering state before death.

Two farm elk herds were destroyed in Minnesota in 2002, and one farm whitetail deer herd was destroyed in 2006. The USDA paid those owners for their losses.

The elk carcasses will be held in a refrigerated trailer until the test results come back. Anderson said it typically takes five days for results.

Animals that test negative for the disease will go through a rendering process.

"The meat and bone meal will be buried in a permitted landfill," Anderson said.

Animals that test positive will be sent to the University of Minnesota Veterinary Diagnostic Laboratory and will go through an alkaline digestion process.

"At the end of the process, there will be nothing left of the animal," Anderson said.

He said the euthanization process should go smoothly, as long as there aren't any spectators in the area.

"We hope people will just let us do our work and stay away," Anderson said.

[mrklean]

just a waste, i understand why it needs to be done but really just tossing them away

[TR21]

I designed the development for Tower Investments and great care was taken to incorporate the Elk into the development.

Obviously there was a sense of separation either by fence or natural and created barriers but the original concept integrated living and working amidst the Elk. This is a shame as they are beautiful animals.

[Cheetah]

The Star Tribune article says at the end that they hope to bring some elk back to live on the property in five years. That would be cool, maybe see some that aren't so docile and actually get in some scraps during the fall rut.

[hartner62]

I want to know how the deer got into the fenced in area with the elk. A few years ago my cousin and I saw a buck inside the fence so we grunted at it just to see what it would do and it ran up to the fence and kept stomping his foot. Hopefully this isn't how the CWD got in there.

[Cheetah]

I want to know how the deer got into the fenced in area with the elk. A few years ago my cousin and I saw a buck inside the fence so we grunted at it just to see what it would do and it ran up to the fence and kept stomping his foot. Hopefully this isn't how the CWD got in there.

Deer can jump really high if they want to.

I don't think CWD has actually been found in the wild in MN yet.

[hartner62]

I know that they can jump high but not that high. Have you seen that fence up close?

[bottom-bouncer]

yes I have I drive by it everyday and yes deer can jump that high I have watched deer jump a 8 foot fence with no running start and thats all the taller that fence is.

[BLACKJACK]

Its only a matter of time before CWD is found in the wild deer herd in MN. The DNR worries about the emerald ash borer moving down the road at 55 mph, and has regulations about fire wood, but there are no laws about transporting captive deer and elk, CWD can get transported at 55 mph too. Every several years you read about a captive elk or deer getting loose and running around, if it was up to me every deer/elk farm would need to have double fences!!!

[96trigger]

I might take some heat on this and it is just my opinion, but I think all deer and elk farms should be eliminated. It seems that eventually happens anyway.

[bottom-bouncer]

I am with you trigger. just get rid of them all. it seeme we have more than are share down in here in our corner of the world. I just found a couple more elk farms last weekend when I was out driving around down towards rushford.

[96trigger]

It doesn't seem like there is any way to keep CWD from hitting a herd, then, the whole herd gets wiped out. What a waste, not to mention the risk of spreading it to the wild deer population. Right now, there just doesn't seem like a good way to keep the disease out. That fence in Rochester is huge, I can't see a deer jumping over that. I know they "could" buy why? Unless it was completely cornered and had nowhere to go when facing life or death. I don't see them skying that thing for fun. Also, if CWD can get in, then it can get out. There just doesn't seem to be enough control over, or information on the spread of CWD. It would be different if they eventually were able to test the herds without killing them.