Alberta hunters are being asked to submit the heads of elk and deer as part of a search for chronic wasting disease in two areas of the province where it is thought the disease would most likely occur.
The sixth annual hunter survey is a way for Alberta Sustainable Resource Development officials to check for the brain wasting disease without having to kill additional animals, said Margo Pybus, the head of the department’s fish and wildlife division.
“The last thing we want to do is kill animals for a surveillance program,” Pybus said.
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The hunters are asked to place heads from elk, mule deer and white-tailed deer in freezers set up in designated areas. The discovery of the disease in a number of game-farmed elk and 12 wild deer in Saskatchewan and one farmed elk and two farmed white-tailed deer from two game farms in central Alberta has focused the survey in two areas of the province. CWD has not been found in wild deer or elk in Alberta.
The target areas are along the Saskatchewan border between Cold Lake and Provost and north of Edmonton to Swan Hills and Westlock.
Pybus said they hope to get heads from 250 animals in each of the areas to have a scientifically valid sample. Road kill animals and animals that are reported in distress will also be added to the survey.
The heads will be tested for the disease at Alberta Agriculture’s lab in Edmonton.
