SASKATOON – He doesn’t like game farming, but an American wildlife biologist says chronic wasting disease in elk shouldn’t be exploited to create a panic that will destroy the industry.
“My concern is that this is going to be blown out of proportion,” said Tom Thorn of the Sybille Wildlife Research and Conservation Education Unit.
“I’m not a fan of game farming, but I don’t think (widespread infection) is at this time an issue in the game farming industry,” said Thorn, who works in Wyoming where game farming is banned.
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He especially disagrees with painting the game farm industry with the mad cow disease brush.
Mad cow disease, formally called bovine spongiform encephalopathy, and chronic wasting disease are both transmissible spongiform encephalopathies, but Thorn said that doesn’t mean they are the same disease.
No evidence of a link
“As far as we know it’s a clear and distinct disease,” he said. “We don’t have any evidence that under natural conditions it will transfer to other species.”
The danger of panic is very real, Thorn said. Public hysteria over mad cow disease in Britain has hammered the British beef industry and “I fear that that’s going to happen here. It could end up being really hard for the game farming industry.”
Thorn said he doesn’t believe chronic wasting disease is a human health threat.
Thorn’s opposition to game farming is a moral stand, not a sign that he believes it is dangerous.
He said he thinks the trade in antler velvet is bogus medicine and that the way velvet is taken is “borderline inhumane,” but he said he has an uneasy truce with the industry.
“I’m not a fan of game farming, but at the same time I encourage them to do their business right and I’m willing to help them do things right,” he said.
Opponents should steer away from claims that mad cow disease and chronic wasting disease are one and the same.
“To apply it to an elk with chronic wasting disease, I think that’s just wrong,” he said. “That’s just hype and isn’t an appropriate use of that name.”
