Health officials have lifted an order to the residents of Shaughnessy to boil all drinking water.
The southern Alberta hamlet of 300 was told Oct. 15 to boil its water after elevated levels of cryptosporidium and giardia were found in the water. The problem was detected when a sick dog was diagnosed with the protozoan in its stool.
Shaughnessy’s water comes from an irrigation reservoir fed by the Lethbridge Northern Irrigation District.
So far, no one knows how the problem developed, said Paul Hasselback, vice-chair of the Chinook Health Region at Lethbridge.
Read Also
Beef check-off collection system aligns across the country
A single and aligned check-off collection system based on where producers live makes the system equal said Chad Ross, Saskatchewan Cattle Association chair.
The health region has the highest level of water borne illnesses in the province and officials plan to monitor the water and its links to public health problems.
Infected water can cause severe diarrhea with abdominal cramps, said the Lethbridge physician.
Many people blame the high concentration of livestock operations in the area because these protozoan are present in an animal’s small intestine.
Hasselback balks at blaming agriculture but has said the 500,000 cattle, 200,000 hogs and a half million chickens in the region create as much manure as eight million people.
The intensive livestock community has a code of practice for handling manure safely but there are concerns some operators don’t follow the rules.
Health officials want research to correlate whether best management practices for manure are in place, and if they are in place, how effective they are.
“The strong belief at this time is that many operators haven’t fully adopted the best management practices. If that occurred, that would substantially reduce the issues that are occurring in our region,” said Hasselback.
Most producers are minding the store but the few who don’t follow the code gain the most attention, he said.
Tim McAllister, at Agriculture Canada’s Lethbridge Research Centre, is part of team looking at giardia and cryptosporidium in livestock. Researchers know the problem can cause scours and lower performance in animals but McAllister won’t blame manure runoff for the current water problems.
No proof available
“The linkage between cattle having giardia or cryptosporidia and people getting it is not established. There’s no scientific data to support this.”
Meanwhile, the health region continues to monitor water supplies throughout the area, said health inspector Pat Potter.
“Over the next five weeks we are testing small communities that are on that irrigation system,” said Potter.
Included in the sweep are communities like Coalhurst, Monarch, Diamond City, Turin and Iron Springs.
Chinook Health Region region regularly tests water for elevated bacterial counts.
The tests for giardia, also known as beaver fever, and cryptosporidium are more involved and require samples of 100 gallons at a time, he said.
