Alberta has reported its first case of chronic wasting disease in a deer killed by a hunter.
The mule deer was killed near Empress along the Alberta-Saskatchewan border and the head was submitted to the province for testing in mid-November.
The diagnosis was confirmed
Dec. 9.
Three other cases have been found this year. The first involved a deer collapsing in a farmyard near Oyen at the beginning of September. The others were found by provincial wildlife officials in October and November, said Dave Early of the sustainable resource development department.
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“We have done a few culls around the province in target areas around the province but the vast majority of heads submitted for our testing program come from hunters,” he said.
Wildlife officials have targeted two border areas and another region north of Edmonton where three cases were confirmed on game farms in 2002.
“We are organizing a plan of attack of how we are going to go in and reduce the number of animals to a level that we feel it needs to be to reduce the likelihood of it spreading,” he said.
In the last 10 years Alberta has tested about 6,000 deer heads submitted mostly by hunters. Anyone submitting a head for testing is asked to hold the rest of the carcass until the diagnosis is complete.
Chronic wasting disease is a nervous system condition where animals cannot maintain weight and waste away. It is not believed to affect humans but the World Health Organization recommends not using meat from infected animals.
