The discovery of deadly chronic wasting disease in a wild deer near Edmonton is raising serious concerns for B.C. wildlife.
“It’s a real concern for us,” Kate Nelson, a provincial wildlife health biologist based in Victoria, said in an interview. “The disease is always fatal. We’re really focused on preventing the introduction. We need to make every effort to look for it.”
CWD is considered neither a native nor introduced disease. It first came to light in the 1960s in a captive mule deer in research facilities in Colorado. It was imported to Canada through game-farm elk, and was first detected in wild mule deer in Saskatchewan in 2001.
The disease is similar to bovine spongiform encephalopathy — mad cow disease — and scrapie in sheep.
“It’s still a mystery where it all began,” Nelson confirmed. “It’s a relatively new disease and we learn more about it all the time.
“In a research facility, who knows. The conditions might have been such that the disease mutated and it appeared. We don’t know for sure. The bottom line is that it’s not a naturally occurring disease anywhere.”
CWD can be transmitted through infected saliva, urine, feces — even soil. Once a member of the deer family, including elk and moose, are infected, it can take months or even years to develop symptoms, including weight loss, drooling, and lack of co-ordination.
Where CWD is present in Alberta and Saskatchewan and areas of the U.S. such as Colorado and Wyoming, the disease seems to be present in about one to six per cent of populations.
Domestic animals that are not members of the deer family as well as humans are not considered at risk.
CWD was recently found in a mule deer shot about 30 kilometres southeast of Edmonton. “It’s the closest case [to B.C.] they’ve found so far for sure, 100 kilometres west of where it had been previously detected,” Nelson said.
B.C. hunters who kill game outside the province where CWD exists could bring the disease back with them. Any organs or tissue from the central nervous system are especially a concern. “An intact head coming back is not allowed,” she said. The meat is OK to eat.
Hunters in the Peace and Kootenay regions near the Alberta border are encouraged to voluntarily submit the heads for testing.
