Changes to the rules allowing the import of live elk and deer into Alberta for the first time in 16 years is like an olive branch to other provinces and states, says the president of the Alberta Elk Commission.
“It’s really a message about two-way trade,” said Glenda Elkow, an elk producer from Lloydminister, Alta.
“You can’t expect somebody to trade with you if you’re not willing to trade with them.”
The new protocols reached by Alberta Agriculture, Alberta Sustainable Resource Development and elk and deer producers after almost two years of negotiations allow for the import of elk and deer for the first time since 1988. That was when Alberta closed its borders after the discovery of chronic wasting disease in farmed elk in Saskatchewan.
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The protocols allow healthy animals that have a history of being monitored through surveillance programs for at least three years onto Alberta farms. Those animals will not be allowed off Alberta farms until a full five years of surveillance has been complete. There hasn’t been a case of CWD in a farmed cervid in Canada for 18 months.
Elkow said there is disease risk in every livestock industry. Instead of closing the borders, governments and industry have to put protocols in place to mitigate that risk.
“Slamming the door shut isn’t the answer. It wasn’t the answer when Alberta did it back in 1988. It still isn’t the answer today.”
For years, the elk industry convention chatter centred on Alberta wanting to trade with different provinces and American states, yet not allowing outside animals into its own province. In turn, some states and provinces started to reject Alberta animals.
“There are some states that have not necessarily closed the border, but made the requirements so tricky that you can’t get them in,” she said.
The protocols are an indication that Alberta is back open for business.
“Opening this border … will tell the rest of North America that Alberta is open for business again.”
The agreement also allows Saskatchewan producers to use Alberta’s federally inspected slaughter facilities. Saskatchewan does not have a federal slaughter plant capable of killing deer and elk, and producers were limited to selling meat from their animals within their own province. Meat from animals slaughtered at a federal facility can be sold across the country or in Europe.
The gesture to allow Saskatchewan animals access to federal plants in Alberta was also another goodwill gesture, said Elkow.
“It was a place to start to get this process going. We wanted to offer something to Saskatchewan to show we were willing to do business,” she said.
More importantly, the new protocol shows the world that borders can reopen.
“It does tell of the ability to get borders open, but everybody’s got to be at the table and everybody’s got to work at it and everybody has got to believe in the goal.”
