So far, it's good news. Officials have now killed 426 deer near Pine Island, Minn., for chronic wasting disease, and 352 have been tested. None had the fatal brain disease. The shooting of deer there continues, now with the addition of federal sharpshooters, who began culling deer Tuesday night. The Minnesota Department of Natural Resources wants to sample 900 adult whitetails in the area, where a wild deer killed by a hunter last fall was found with CWD. Of the 426 killed thus far, 138 were fawns, which won't count towards the 900-deer tally because they wouldn't be expected to show signs of the disease yet. They're being tested anyway. Federal sharpshooters using bait and night-vision scopes began shooting deer Tuesday evening, but so far have shot just 17 deer, Lou Cornicelli, DNR big game program leader, said at a news conference Thursday. "It's starting slowly at first...as we expected,'' he said. Some 300 landowners or their designees have been given special permits to shoot deer, and those permits are in effect until Tuesday. "We're tickled the landowners are killing deer, but they are really moving animals around,'' making it difficult for the sharpshooters to attract deer to their bait. Cornicelli expects the sharpshooters' success to greatly increase once the landowners' permits expire. Meanwhile, more than 200 people have signed up to take the deer carcasses for the venison, once tests show they are free of CWD. For more information, or to get on the waiting list, see the DNR's website at www.dnr.state.mn and click on "managing CWD in Minnesota."