MLA urges action on wasting disease
Swann calls province ‘negligent’ in handling of BSE-like illness
The spread of a fatal neurological illness affecting elk, moose and deer in eastern Alberta is reminiscent of the onset of Canada’s mad cow disease crisis, says an Alberta legislator.
Liberal MLA David Swann warned that chronic wasting disease (CWD) — a prion disease in the same family as bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE), scrapes and Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (CJD), which affect cattle, sheep and humans respectively — needs to be contained before irreparably harming the environment, agriculture industry and human health.
“This provincial government is negligent,” he was recorded as saying in Hansard last month.
He called on the NDP to implement more stringent policies to restrict the movement of animals in an effort to quell the spread of the disease. He also advocated for a summit where leaders from Ottawa and affected provinces can discuss a national strategy.
“That would ultimately move us towards a stronger evidence base about getting serious about controlling this disease,” he said in an interview.
In 2003, a single BSE-infected cow traced back to northern Alberta spurred a worldwide ban on Canadian beef exports and cost up to $10 billion.
“We learned nothing from the BSE crisis,” Swann said in Hansard. “Conventional wisdom at the time assured us that this could not be transmitted to humans. This proved wrong, and variant CJD cost over 200 human lives.”
‘RELATIVELY NEW’
In 2002, a lone elk on a game farm became Alberta’s first CWD case.
Since then, four other farms have had animals test positive.
In 2005, Alberta reported its first cases of wild cervids along the Saskatchewan border. The disease — which has also been reported in more than two dozen U.S. states, Norway and South Korea — has no treatment or vaccine.
“It’s a relatively new disease on the landscape,” said Margo Pybus, provincial wildlife disease specialist, last Monday. “It is slowly increasing within local populations on the east side of the province.”
Researchers haven’t ruled out the possibility that the disease can infect humans or cattle — a University of Calgary study found CWD could infect macaque monkeys who ate tainted meat — but agree it’s extremely unlikely.
Agriculture and Forestry Minister Oneil Carlier said he’s confident in Alberta’s tracking system, which costs $700,000 annually and includes mandatory testing for hunted deer meat in certain areas.
“I do think (Swann is) wrong comparing this to BSE,” Carlier said Thursday. “With the traceability we’re doing now ... we’re in a really good place to stay ahead of it to ensure we have the measures in place to protect the herds and protect the markets.”
Carlier noted he is “somewhat concerned” by the less strict control measures set out by other jurisdictions.
Saskatchewan disbanded its mandatory wildlife testing program in 2012. The Canadian Food Inspection Agency recently changed its monitoring program of farmed cervids and launched a voluntary herd certification program. The agency said the move followed unsuccessful attempts to contain the disease.
“At first glance there are concerns with the CFIA backing away with some of their control measures,” Carlier said. “At the moment what I think what we’re doing ... is strong enough.”
Alberta’s threatened woodland caribou could also be at risk, said University of Alberta researcher Debbie McKenzie, who is among a group of scientists funded by the Alberta Prion Research Institute.
“That’s one thing that we’re very concerned about,” she said, adding at least four CWD strains have been confirmed.
The disease is transmitted through direct contact among animals, as well as by saliva, fecal matter and urine. Cross-species infection with other animals including bison, bighorn sheep and mountain goats could also happen, she said. “It’s very infectious to animals.”
The disease’s spread could also force deer populations into decline, which has happened in Colorado and Wyoming. They were home to the first reported CWD cases in the late 1970s.
“Then that is going to have a lot of ramifications on the environment,” she said.
EXPANDING SURVEILLANCE PROGRAM
Last year Alberta tested more than 6,000 deer heads for the disease, and the plan is to boost that number to 10,000 annually, said Matt Dykstra, spokesman for the minister of environment
Our objective is to be able to limit the rate at which the disease spreads. This is not an easy task.
and parks. “Our objective is to be able to limit the rate at which the disease spreads. This is not an easy task,” he said in a statement Thursday.
Program experts spent the last week of March in the U.S. to present on two decades of research to counterparts in Colorado, Wyoming, Utah and Nevada, he added.
“Many other jurisdictions are looking at our data because we have a continuous picture about how this disease moves across the landscape,” he said.
The surveillance program depends on hunters turning in their deer heads, McKenzie said.
“If people are in areas where we know there is CWD, they should get their animals tested and not eat them if they’re positive.”