A second wild mule deer has tested positive for chronic wasting disease.
The Saskatchewan government confirmed June 26 that a four-year-old buck harvested this spring as part of a sample collection program to monitor for the disease did indeed have it.
Environment minister Buckley Belanger had told the legislature June 7 that the sample was suspicious.
The buck was taken within three kilometres of where the first animal was found, in the Manito Sandhills region south of Lloydminster.
Saskatchewan environment officials said finding the two cases so close together might indicate the disease is restricted to a small area. This spring 213 animals were collected in the area.
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Alberta environmental staff also collected 241 samples in an area adjacent to Lloydminster, all of which tested negative.
A total of 1,418 wild animals have been tested over the last three years, with only the two positive tests.
Meanwhile, five more herds of Saskatchewan elk are being destroyed after animals within them tested positive. That could put the number of animals killed in an attempt to eradicate the disease at 5,500.
George Luterbach, regional veterinarian with the Canadian Food Inspection Agency, said June 18 that the positive tests are related to trace-out animals from an infected game farm.
One of the five herds is large, he said, and that means as many as 2,000 will be killed, beginning in July. Already, 3,500 have been destroyed.
“We don’t know the numbers for sure,” Luterbach said, because the entire herd may not have to be destroyed.
He said there are still some logistics to work out regarding burial sites before the animals are destroyed.
“Sometimes on farms there is not suitable land for burial,” he said.
The five farms are in the Prince Albert and North Battleford districts.
Luterbach said the policy of destroying animals will continue.
“We feel it is effective,” he said. “Unfortunately we’re dealing with 10 years of accumulated problems and it will take us a little bit of time to catch up.”
