Saskatchewan Environment officials suspect another case of chronic
wasting disease in the wild.
A sample taken from a three-year-old mule deer buck was tested at
Prairie Diagnostic Services in Saskatoon and has been sent to a lab in
Nepean, Ont., for confirmation.
Provincial CWD manager Kevin Omoth said the sample will be checked a
third time in the United States if it tests positive at the Ontario lab.
The buck was found in the Manito Sand Hills area near Lloydminster
where two other positive tests have been confirmed in the past year. It
was among 185 samples taken from an estimated deer population of 400 in
the area.
The department will again be asking for hunter and landowner
co-operation this fall, when they begin collecting deer and elk heads
for testing.
“Everybody wants the same thing – to get rid of this in the wild,” he
said.
In the past four years 5,838 samples have been tested.
