The possibility that bovine tuberculosis has spread into the white-tailed deer population has added to the concerns of cattle producers around a national park in western Manitoba.
Until now, the disease has been confined mostly to cattle and wild elk in the Riding Mountain National Park area. However, two white-tailed deer have also tested positive in the area, one in 2001 near Rossburn and one this year near Grandview.
“That really changes the whole complexion here,” said Rossburn cattle producer Ray Armbruster, noting that deer tend to roam over a larger area than elk. Because of that, an infected deer population could add significantly to the risk of the disease spreading.
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Government officials announced last week that they will turn their attention to the white-tailed deer around the park as part of the effort to eradicate bovine tuberculosis from wildlife and cattle in the area.
Manitoba Conservation, Manitoba Agriculture, Parks Canada and the Canadian Food Inspection Agency plan to cull and test 247 deer from the Rossburn, Grandview and Rosedale areas. That will be in addition to the 78 samples already collected from adult white-tailed deer killed during the 2003 hunting season. The extra sampling is to begin March 11 and run for two weeks.
There is already an ongoing effort to manage TB in the area’s wild elk population. Cattle producers also have undergone thorough testing of their herds to ferret out infected animals, resulting in some herds having to be slaughtered over the past year or so.
If the disease also exists in the deer population, it would be futile to attempt to eradicate it by concentrating only on cattle and elk, Armbruster said.
While producers in the area generally are sensitive to local wildlife, the disease is a threat to their livelihoods, he said.
They are in a zone where all breeding stock destined for the United States must be tested for the disease before being exported. If it could be shown that the disease had been eradicated from the area, that restriction could be lifted.
“The producers want to see light at the end of the day to get out of this zone,” Armbruster said.
The latest disease surveillance effort is encouraging, along with the ongoing effort to detect and eliminate the disease in wild elk, said Manitoba Cattle Producers president Betty Green.
