Government employees will shoot several hundred deer in eastern Alberta where four new cases of chronic wasting disease were discovered in wild deer.
Shooting deer that have possibly come in contact with deer infected with CWD is the only way to keep the disease from spreading through the province’s wild deer population, said Lyle Fullerton, an information officer with Alberta’s Fish and Wildlife department.
“It’s the only tool we know of,” Fullerton said about the hunt, which will begin in March.
“Doing nothing is too great a risk to (the) provincial deer population.”
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Four new CWD cases were found during the 2006 hunting season, three in northeastern Alberta near Chauvin and Edgerton and one in southeastern Alberta near Empress.
Empress is the farthest west that the disease has been found in deer along the Red Deer and South Saskatchewan rivers. CWD has been discovered in 17 wild deer in Alberta since it was detected in 2005.
For the first time, a Hughes 500 helicopter will be used, with a shooter on board, to hunt animals and then transport them to an access road.
“The premise will be able to kill more deer in a shorter time frame,” Fullerton said.
The helicopter will also be used in wooded or steep river banks where trucks and all-terrain vehicles can’t reach the deer or in sensitive grassland.
Fullerton said government employees are surveying two wildlife areas to estimate the number of deer and find out where they are located.
He expects staff will shoot several hundred deer in the southern location and many hundreds in the northern area.
CWD is a nervous system disease caused by abnormal proteins. It is believed to be spread by contact with infected animals, which slowly waste away.
For the first time, staff will test the use of the public’s assistance in the deer kill, possibly to help bait deer stations and to remove carcasses from the site.
