Manitoba cattle producers worry that the threat of bovine tuberculosis
won’t go away until more is done to purge the disease from the wild elk
herd at Riding Mountain National Park.
The disease prevalence in the elk herd is believed to be as high as
five percent in an area on the west side of the national park.
The province has been encouraging measures such as fencing hay
enclosures to reduce the likelihood of cattle and elk mingling. It also
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announced it would increase the number of hunting licences issued this
fall and winter as part of a strategy to reduce the elk herd to about
2,500 animals.
Hunting isn’t allowed in the park, but it’s hoped hunters will kill elk
that leave the park to forage for food.
However, Betty Green, vice-president of the Manitoba Cattle Producers
Association, insists a contingency plan is needed to manage the disease
problem within the wild elk herd. She said there are no assurances
increased hunting will effectively reduce the park’s elk population.
It’s believed bovine TB can pass between cattle and elk, but while an
entire cattle herd is slaughtered if TB is confirmed, the same is not
the case with wild elk.
Green suggested that a solution would be to focus elk hunting on areas
that neighbour parts of the park where there is a higher prevalence of
the disease. That’s something the province has indicated it will
consider for future years.
“The real problem is cleaning up the TB in the elk,” Green said.
“The most critical thing for us is a plan for the eradication of the
disease.”
Manitoba lost its TB-free status in August following the discovery last
year of an infected cattle herd at Grandview, Man., and an infected
cull cow that had been shipped to a U.S. slaughter plant.
As a result, all breeding cattle and sexually intact heifers must be
tested for TB before they can be shipped to the United States.
More recently, the Canadian Food Inspection Agency confirmed it is
testing six cattle from four different farms in Manitoba after
preliminary tests indicated they might have the disease.
Meanwhile, the CFIA is doing a testing “blitz” of cattle herds around
the Riding Mountain park as part of the disease control effort in
Manitoba. Maria Koller of the CFIA said there has been a high level of
co-operation from cattle producers in that area.
“They’re signing up faster than we can test them.”
Glen Campbell, a producer at Onanole, Man., a community just south of
the park, said the level of frustration is increasing among producers
bordering Riding Mountain. Their main beef isn’t with the CFIA, he
said. They have accepted the testing with “gritted teeth.”
Their greatest concern is driven by what Campbell considers a lack of
effort by the federal parks department to remedy the disease problem
within the park elk herd.
He said it’s starting to raise questions in cattle producers’ minds
about whether they should continue farming in that area.
“We’ve got to do something. Who will want to raise cattle up here if
something isn’t done soon?”
