The public can get more details about what the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources is doing to respond to chronic wasting disease found in wild deer in southeastern Minnesota at a meeting scheduled for 7-8:30 p.m. on Tuesday, Dec. 18, in Preston.

At the meeting in the Fillmore Central School Auditorium, 702 Chatfield St., DNR staff will explain the CWD response efforts planned for this winter, including late-season special hunts, landowner shooting permits and targeted culling.

“DNR’s actions are designed to limit disease spread and keep Minnesota’s deer populations healthy,” said Lou Cornicelli, wildlife research manager. “We’re having this meeting so people can hear face-to-face about what’s going on and ask their own questions.”

Staff also will discuss potential future actions, including a snow-dependent aerial deer survey and expansion of the disease management zone that now encompasses a 10-mile radius around the city of Preston.

To date, sampling efforts taken by the DNR in cooperation with hunters have detected 30 cases of the neurological disease in wild deer in southeastern Minnesota. The DNR discovered 12 new cases this fall in or around the disease management zone in Fillmore County. The agency discovered one additional case that was recently confirmed for a wild deer harvested in Houston County, about 30 miles from the disease management zone.

Complete Minnesota CWD test results, including locations of positive test results and statistics, are available on the DNR website at mndnr.gov/cwdcheck.

Complete information for hunters about CWD for current and upcoming hunting seasons is online at mndnr.gov/cwd.