More than 200 Saskatchewan farmed elk will be destroyed as the Canadian Food Inspection Agency strives to wipe out chronic wasting disease.
The 1,150 elk on the five farms that have experienced the disease will remain locked down while the CFIA decides what to do with them.
The Saskatchewan Elk Breeders Association praises the action.
“We’ve been fighting for a policy and we’ve got it,” said elk breeder’s association executive director Brenda McLash.
“The hurricane’s gone by and the dust is now settling.”
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The Saskatchewan Wildlife Federation, which represents hunters, sees it differently. The organization thinks the CFIA action proves there is a major problem and that game farms are endangering Saskatchewan’s native wild elk.
“It’s going to be very difficult to control it,” said Lorne Scott, the federation’s executive director.
“Here we are, 10 years after (the U.S. border was closed to elk imports) and we’re still having animals diagnosed.”
The 240 animals that will be killed came from the five infected farms but were sold to other farmers. None has developed the disease, which is akin to scrapie in sheep and to mad cow disease.
The disease first appeared in Saskatchewan in 1996 on a farm near Sedley, in an elk imported from the United States.
A second case appeared in 1998 on a Swift Current farm. In February 2000, another animal developed the disease at that farm.
Since then, four more Saskatchewan farms have discovered the disease among their animals. Those five herds are now under quarantine. The elk can’t be sold or moved to any other herd. All of the infected animals have either been in direct contact with an infected American animal, or a Canadian animal infected by an American import.
The 240 to be killed are among the 650 animals that were sold out of those herds and then put under quarantine.
The CFIA has decided to exterminate any animal that has been in direct contact with an infected animal within the last three years. Any animal that has had direct contact but has not become infected in more than three years will be allowed to live.
However, animals that have been in contact with a diseased animal more than three years ago, but less than five years ago, must be quarantined. After five years without signs of the disease, an animal will be allowed out of quarantine.
George Luterbach, the CFIA vet in charge of the control program, said most scientists believe chronic wasting disease appears 16 to 36 months after an animal is infected. If it hasn’t shown up after three years, it probably never will. But Luterbach admitted there is no sure way to tell.
“There are some areas that are not well understood at this time, so the policy was based on the best assumptions,” said Luterbach.
Saskatchewan elk farmers have pushed the CFIA to take decisive action since the disease was found. They often grumbled the agency was not acting strongly enough to snuff out the disease.
McLash said elk farmers will co-operate with the CFIA, now that the agency has come out with a strong response.
“We’ve asked for this, so we’re working it through.”
Scott said his organization thinks every animal in every herd that has produced an infected animal should be destroyed.
He said the CFIA should consider banning elk production on land that has held infected animals, since there is some evidence the disease can stay in the soil. The land should also be fenced so wild elk do not become infected from contaminated soil, he said.
“It’s the unknown that we worry about,” said Scott.
