Deer-Feeding Ban To Curb CWD To Start In SE Minn.

ROCHESTER (AP) - Starting Monday, residents of four southeastern Minnesota counties will be forbidden to feed deer as part of an effort to fight chronic wasting disease in the state.

The ban is taking place in Dodge, Goodhue, Olmsted and Wabasha counties and will continue indefinitely.

Minnesota Department of Natural Resources big-game coordinator Lou Cornicelli says the ban is meant to reduce deer-to-deer transmission of the disease by reducing the amount of locations where they would concentrate.

The rule is part of a larger fight by the DNR to stop the spread of the fatal brain disease that affects deer, elk and moose. A wild deer killed near Pine Island last November tested positive for the disease.

(Copyright 2011 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)