ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) -- Minnesota has received encouraging news in the fight to keep chronic wasting disease out of its deer herd.

The Department of Natural Resources says tests on more than 2,300 deer taken by hunters this fall and winter turned up no new cases.

CWD was discovered last fall in a deer shot near Pine Island in southeastern Minnesota. In response, the state started requiring hunters to submit tissue samples from deer taken in a designated zone in that area.

DNR wildlife research manager Lou Cornicelli (korn-ih-SELL'-lee) says not a single nnew case of chronic wasting was detected in the zone, nor in areas surrounding it.

As a precaution, the DNR will keep taking samples in future seasons, and a deer feeding ban remains in effect in Dodge, Goodhue, Olmsted, and Wabasha counties.