A dead elk found by hikers in Riding Mountain National Park last fall has revived worries about bovine tuberculosis in Manitoba.
The elk died of injuries from fighting during the mating season, but in mid-December, routine tests done by the Canadian Food Inspection Agency found the bull was infected with tuberculosis.
George Luterbach, head of the regional animal health division at the agency, said federal veterinarians will soon start testing about 2,500 cattle for the disease.
Luterbach said he expects vets will find no infected cattle in 50 herds south of the park in west-central Manitoba.
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But since the disease can spread between cattle and wild ungulate species through close contact around hay or water, he wants to be sure.
“We just don’t know for sure which way the TB has gone,” said Luterbach.
He suspects the diseased elk may have contracted the disease in 1997 from an infected cattle herd at Rossburn, Man., 40 kilometres east of the park.
After the 1997 outbreak, two herds totaling 575 cattle were destroyed, along with heifers sold from the two farms.
More than 3,000 head were quarantined on farms and tested for the disease in early 1998.
Cattle tested last year won’t be tested again, said Luterbach. This time, no cattle will be quarantined because “there’s no evidence whatsoever that any cattle herds are infected,” he said.
The agency is working with Parks Canada and provincial natural resources officials to test as many wild elk, deer and moose as possible for the disease.
Marvin Miller, chief warden for the park, said he believes the infected elk is an “isolated case,” but wants to see results from more tests to make sure.
“It’s a chicken and egg scenario: You don’t know whether the cows gave it to the elk or the elk gave it to the cows,” said Miller.
Parks and government officials will meet with farmers at Sandy Lake, McCreary and Gilbert Plains between Jan. 21 and Feb. 3 to explain their surveillance program.
Miller recently met with people from 15 municipalities bordering the park who are concerned that cattle from the area are getting lower prices when they go to market because of publicity about the single diseased elk.
When tuberculosis is found in a cattle herd, the entire herd is killed even though all animals may not be infected.
Some cattle producers are peeved wild elk herds aren’t given the same treatment, said Miller.
“That’s physically impossible to do in a wild population,” he said. “We can never eliminate the entire elk herd and that’s certainly not our intention.”
Fencing the 3,326 sq. kilometre park isn’t an option either, said Miller.
This is the third time cattle south of the park will be tested for the disease.
In 1991, several herds in the Rossburn area were slaughtered after a rare outbreak. That year marked the first-ever finding in Canada of an infected wild elk, shot by hunters a mile away from an infected cattle herd.
Luterbach noted research around the world shows when tuberculosis is eradicated from cattle, it also seems to disappear in wildlife.
Last year, federal and provincial officials started testing dead deer, elk and moose found in and around Riding Mountain National Park for tuberculosis because of cattle producers’ concerns about wildlife spreading disease.
So far, they have looked at more than 500 animals. Only one had the disease.
