A proposal to eliminate half of Saskatchewan’s farmed elk to control
chronic wasting disease has been shot down.
A small group of elk farmers filed the proposal with the Canadian Food
Inspection Agency earlier this month.
Bob Kirkpatrick, president of the Saskatchewan Elk Breeders
Association, said the producers’ proposal was intended to wipe out CWD,
remove the threat of intermingling between diseased wild and domestic
herds, restore markets and stabilize the industry.
The producers could not be reached for comment but their proposal asked
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for compensation of $4,000 per head, with $1,000 set aside for the
creation of an elk slaughter facility.
The plan to kill 15,000 farmed elk was not endorsed by SEBA, nor was it
proposed by SEBA members, said Kirkpatrick.
“Our conclusion is that producers are getting desperate, especially
those in severe drought areas,” he said.
The proposal was to be discussed at a SEBA board of directors meeting
Aug. 21 in Regina, after Western Producer deadlines.
Earlier this month, this same group of producers suggested that
drought-ravaged elk farmers, unable to grow or access affordable feed,
might have to turn animals loose rather than watch them starve behind a
fence.
Kirkpatrick said SEBA does not condone the illegal release of animals
into the wild. It supports the mandatory CWD surveillance and testing
program as a means of eradicating the disease from farmed populations.
George Luterbach of the CFIA said rather than killing their animals,
the elk producers would be better off using income stabilization or
disaster assistance programs to help them through a financially
difficult time.
“To destroy half the population as proposed as disease control action
does not seem to make sense to us,” said Luterbach.
CWD has affected 41 herds in Saskatchewan and Alberta since 2000.
Luterbach said 230 animals from Saskatchewan farmed elk herds tested
positive, with more than 8,000 Saskatchewan and Alberta elk destroyed
due to risks of CWD contamination with infected animals.
“A ratio of 230 to 8,500 says we’re taking a conservative approach,” he
said.
CWD is a reportable disease and a mandatory surveillance program is in
place that requires the brains of dead animals to be tested for CWD.
