Protecting health of deer, elk
Chronic Wasting Disease (CWD), a contagious and deadly illness that affects deer, moose and elk, will become easier to monitor, thanks to recent scientific advancements that will ensure cases are detected before an animal develops symptoms.
CWD is a prion disease that is highly contagious between hoofed animals in the cervid family, spreading through saliva, animal carcasses, feces, and even soil and plants located in areas where infected animals have died.
The contagious nature of the disease makes it a prime concern for hunters and game farmers. Once farm soil is contaminated, it can take years to rid the area of the infection and, if left unchecked, it spreads quickly. But it has also proven difficult to trace, as animals only show symptoms in the latter stages of infection.
“You're chasing ghosts. By the time you find it you're trying to track down something that happened two to three years ago,” said Harvey Petracek, vice-president of Saskatchewan Cervid Alliance and the Elk Research Foundation, in an interview Monday.
Petracek, who farms elk near Esterhazy, has worked extensively with scientists and the provincial government to help improve testing methods and prevent the spread of the disease.
A recent report released by the Canadian Agri-food Policy Institute (CAPI) detailed findings from a scientific study in Alberta, where macaque monkeys were infected with CWD, indicating a possible human connection.
But Petracek said he's not concerned by this news, as the study is still ongoing and has yet to be peer-reviewed. His focus remains on keeping herds of cervids safe and preventing the spread among animals.
He's been working on a program that is focused on catching cases of CWD in animals before they develop symptoms, rather than waiting until the animal has died or begins to show obvious signs of infection.
The program is already a few years in the making and involves collecting tissue from the rectum of cervid species for biopsy.
Petracek explained that some cervid species show more susceptibility than others and that deer are more likely to contract the illness than elk. As part of the Elk Research Foundation, Petracek is involved in a study with Texas A & M University that will help identify what makes certain species more resistant than others, which he said is the first of its kind in North America.
This is in addition to prevention measures that already exist. The Ministry of Environment offers free CWD testing for all hunters, which requires them to submit the heads of the animals they kill for testing. According to the provincial government's latest Hunter Surveillance Program, 338 mule deer, 118 white-tailed deer, five moose and five elk tested positive for the disease last year.
Game farmers are also required to participate in the Cervid CWD Surveillance Program, which incorporates continuous testing of all farmed animals.
But Petacek said the disease isn't going away any time soon.
Although farmers can keep transmission low by restricting where herds graze and limiting herd contact with wild populations, he said CWD transmission through grain and feed continues to be an issue.
“It's going to persist unless there's a vaccine,” he added.