Tyler Clarke
Herald staff
A deer at a game farm in the Prince Albert District died as a result of chronic wasting disease, a test confirmed last month.
"We're still doing an investigation," Canadian Food Inspection Agency veterinarian disease control specialist Alex McIsaac said, adding that not much more information on this specific case can be shared.
The typical process is being followed, he said, wherein the area is contained, quarantined, and in all likelihood depopulated, with the farm owner receiving compensation to help offset the costs. The difficult process of cleaning and disinfecting can then take place.
The source of the infected animal will also be determined to help stem further spread of the disease, McIsaac said.
The location of the gaming farm in question will not be shared beyond the Prince Albert District description - an area stretching from the City of Prince Albert area both east and north to the province's boarders with Manitoba and the Yukon Territory respectively.
The timeline of when the farm can again house game will depend on how the cleanup process goes. Spread by excretions, all dirt, feeding troughs, and anything else the animals may have touched will have to be burned or buried.
Similar to mad cow disease, chronic wasting disease is a progressive fatal nervous system disease. Dissimilar to mad cow disease, it's thus far been proven to have no effect on humans.
"That's one of the more important things to know," McIsaac noted, adding that measures to stem the disease's spread have to do with protecting the animals.
This is the fourth case reported throughout the province so far this year, McIsaac said - other cases including a May 15 elk, a Jan. 19 deer, and another Jan. 4 deer.
Testing is mandatory at gaming farms throughout the prairies and the Yukon Territory, with the Canadian Food Inspection Agency requiring that all elk, deer, and moose that die have their heads shipped in for testing.
The only way to test animals for chronic wasting disease is to take samples from the brain and other tissue, post-mortem.
There are a number of symptoms, including depression, difficult swallowing, excessive salivation, paralysis, unusual behaviour, weight loss, and several other things - all or some of which popping up after about 36 months of infection.
This is about average. This is not unexpected or abnormal. - Canadian Food Inspection Agency veterinarian disease control specialist Alex McIsaac
"Once you see the symptoms, it's been a while," McIsaac cautioned, adding that by this time the whole herd will have to be killed, as the disease would have had adequate time to spread.
McIsaac said that farmers can help minimize their herd's risk of getting chronic wasting disease by signing up for the Canadian Food Inspection Agency's voluntary herd certification program, wherein they confirm how every animal that dies on their farm died through agency test documentation. In addition, only buy animals from other farms that have signed up for the voluntary program, he encourages.
Wild game affected, too
Instances of chronic wasting disease also pop up in wild game, though the monitoring of wild game is less time sensitive than that on the more concentrated farm setting, and serves more of a surveillance-centred purpose than as a quarantine.
The Ministry of Environment has initiated a voluntary program wherein hunters can submit deer and elk heads to the nearest Ministry of Environment office by Jan. 15.
Antlers removed, heads must be submitted in leak-proof plastic bags alongside a hunter licence number, the hunter's surname, given name, phone number, location of the animal's harvest, the kill date, and the species and sex of the deer or elk killed.
The results of wild game chronic wasting disease testing will be released some time early in the new year.
In 2010, 31 wild mule deer and four wild white tail deer tested positive for chronic wasting disease - about on par with previous years. The year's sample consisted of 1,195 animals.
First popping up in Saskatchewan in 1996, over the years 47,580 wild animals have been tested, of which 250 mule deer, 61 white tail deer, and three elk have tested positive for chronic wasting disease.
As for instances of chronic wasting disease in farmed animals, McIsaac said that this year's four animals testing positive is nothing to worry about.
"This is about average. This is not unexpected or abnormal," he said.
A multitude of additional information around chronic wasting disease can be found online at the Canadian Food Inspection Agency's website - www.inspection.gc.ca.
