Macleans.ca
JOHN COTTER
January 15, 2007 - 18:25
http://www.macleans.ca/topstories/politics/news/shownews.jsp?content=n011561A
EDMONTON (CP) - More cases of deadly chronic wasting disease in wild deer are showing up in Saskatchewan and Alberta.
So far 30 deer shot by hunters last fall in Saskatchewan have tested positive for the fatal brain malady, which is similar in some ways to mad cow disease but poses no threat to human health. More test results are pending.
In Alberta, there have been four cases since the fall in areas located just across the Saskatchewan boundary.
Officials in both provinces report that some of these cases are located in new areas - a finding that suggests that the disease may be spreading or that animals with CWD are on the move.
"We are finding it in places where we haven't found it before," Marv Hlady of Saskatchewan Environment said Monday.
"It is outside of the traditional CWD infected area."
Scientists and wildlife officials are working hard to contain chronic wasting disease, which affects white-tailed deer, mule deer and elk and has also been found in black-tailed deer and moose.
There are concerns that over time the disease could spread to other provinces and ravage the deer population or jump to related species such as caribou.
Saskatchewan and Alberta, the only provinces where CWD has appeared, have tried culling deer from areas where infected animals have been found, but with limited success.
Last year the governments turned to sports hunters to thin the wild deer population.
Monday was the deadline for hunters to turn the heads of harvested deer in for testing - about 5,000 animals from Saskatchewan and about 2,800 in Alberta.
While that will provide researchers with more information, it is far from a solution, said Stephen Moore, executive director of the Alberta Prion Institute.
"This doesn't seem to really be a viable long-term proposition, but that is all that we have at the moment," said Moore.
"Until we know how it is spread, how the disease moves from one animal to the other, we are going to be in a difficult situation."
Unlike mad cow disease, which is spread by animals eating contaminated material, scientists believe CWD may be spread in soil or even by two animals just nuzzling each other.
Moore said more research into the disease is vital.
If it is determined that CWD can jump to other species or is in danger of spreading to other parts of Canada, a national strategy will be needed to contain it or at least slow it down.
Some provinces such as Ontario are already testing their wild animal population for the disease as a precaution.
Of 450 white-tailed dear tested for chronic wasting disease in northwestern Ontario last fall, all came back negative.
Wildlife experts and provincial and federal officials hammered out the genesis of a national strategy for controlling chronic wasting disease in October 2005.
The plan's goals include preventing new cases of CWD, finding ways to detect it early, and responding to and managing new outbreaks.
Ted Leighton, executive director of the Canadian Cooperative Wildlife Health Centre, said much of the plan has languished on the shelf due to a lack of federal funding and a reluctance by Ottawa to take action.
"Saskatchewan and Alberta have been left basically to their own devices to go about trying to control the disease in the wild as best they can," Leighton said from Saskatoon.
"There is nothing to prevent this disease from spreading coast to coast to coast."
JOHN COTTER
January 15, 2007 - 18:25
http://www.macleans.ca/topstories/politics/news/shownews.jsp?content=n011561A
EDMONTON (CP) - More cases of deadly chronic wasting disease in wild deer are showing up in Saskatchewan and Alberta.
So far 30 deer shot by hunters last fall in Saskatchewan have tested positive for the fatal brain malady, which is similar in some ways to mad cow disease but poses no threat to human health. More test results are pending.
In Alberta, there have been four cases since the fall in areas located just across the Saskatchewan boundary.
Officials in both provinces report that some of these cases are located in new areas - a finding that suggests that the disease may be spreading or that animals with CWD are on the move.
"We are finding it in places where we haven't found it before," Marv Hlady of Saskatchewan Environment said Monday.
"It is outside of the traditional CWD infected area."
Scientists and wildlife officials are working hard to contain chronic wasting disease, which affects white-tailed deer, mule deer and elk and has also been found in black-tailed deer and moose.
There are concerns that over time the disease could spread to other provinces and ravage the deer population or jump to related species such as caribou.
Saskatchewan and Alberta, the only provinces where CWD has appeared, have tried culling deer from areas where infected animals have been found, but with limited success.
Last year the governments turned to sports hunters to thin the wild deer population.
Monday was the deadline for hunters to turn the heads of harvested deer in for testing - about 5,000 animals from Saskatchewan and about 2,800 in Alberta.
While that will provide researchers with more information, it is far from a solution, said Stephen Moore, executive director of the Alberta Prion Institute.
"This doesn't seem to really be a viable long-term proposition, but that is all that we have at the moment," said Moore.
"Until we know how it is spread, how the disease moves from one animal to the other, we are going to be in a difficult situation."
Unlike mad cow disease, which is spread by animals eating contaminated material, scientists believe CWD may be spread in soil or even by two animals just nuzzling each other.
Moore said more research into the disease is vital.
If it is determined that CWD can jump to other species or is in danger of spreading to other parts of Canada, a national strategy will be needed to contain it or at least slow it down.
Some provinces such as Ontario are already testing their wild animal population for the disease as a precaution.
Of 450 white-tailed dear tested for chronic wasting disease in northwestern Ontario last fall, all came back negative.
Wildlife experts and provincial and federal officials hammered out the genesis of a national strategy for controlling chronic wasting disease in October 2005.
The plan's goals include preventing new cases of CWD, finding ways to detect it early, and responding to and managing new outbreaks.
Ted Leighton, executive director of the Canadian Cooperative Wildlife Health Centre, said much of the plan has languished on the shelf due to a lack of federal funding and a reluctance by Ottawa to take action.
"Saskatchewan and Alberta have been left basically to their own devices to go about trying to control the disease in the wild as best they can," Leighton said from Saskatoon.
"There is nothing to prevent this disease from spreading coast to coast to coast."
