Questions linger about what will become of elk taken from the wild more than two years ago as part of Manitoba’s controversial elk capture program.
Among the 438 elk captured during the winter of 1998-99 were 140 adults from around the Riding Mountain National Park.
The intent was to test for disease and then sell the animals as seed stock to Manitoba elk farms.
But that plan has hit some snags.
The Canadian Food Inspection Agency cannot guarantee the elk are free of bovine tuberculosis because of the disease’s presence among wild elk in the park.
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The province’s elk growers are vigorously opposed to having the captured elk released into farmed elk herds.
“It would do us more harm than good at this point,” said Ed Harms, an elk producer from Mather, Man., and spokesperson for the Manitoba Elk Growers Association.
Captured elk that had the disease could infect farmed elk herds, which would then have to be destroyed.
There are also trade implications, he said. Adding captured elk to farm herds would make it harder to convince prospective buyers outside the province that Manitoba’s farmed elk are TB-free.
“It’s going to hinder our trade with the States and possibly with Saskatchewan and Alberta.”
The elk have undergone three rounds of testing for bovine tuberculosis. Each time, the animals have come up clean.
The CFIA, which conducted the tests, said there is only a low risk that the animals are carrying the disease. However, the tests are not 100 percent accurate.
“The fact remains that they were captured out of an area where we are still experiencing infections,” said Blaine Thompson, a CFIA veterinary program specialist in Manitoba.
To help monitor the disease in the Riding Mountain area, hunters are asked to turn in samples from elk shot there. Four elk tested positive for tuberculosis from the past two hunting seasons.
Early this year, a herd of about two dozen cattle north of the park was destroyed because of the disease. A cattle herd south of the park was destroyed for the same reason in 1997.
Thompson said the CFIA will not allow elk that were captured from around Riding Mountain in 1998-99 to be released into farmed elk herds.
However, he said the CFIA has proposed slaughtering the elk captured from the Riding Mountain area and then testing them for bovine TB. If the tests came back negative, the agency would grant approval for the offspring to be released, Thompson said.
“The province retracted from that plan. We haven’t heard anything more, so I guess there hasn’t been a decision reached.”
Dave Donaghy, Manitoba’s assistant deputy agriculture minister, said the province is still awaiting confirmation in writing from the CFIA that it agrees to the proposal described by Thompson.
Donaghy said a decision can be made once confirmation arrives.
Ideally, he would like to see all the animals, including those captured around Riding Mountain, dispersed to elk farms. He said the province has gone to extremes to ensure they would pose no risk to farmed herds.
However, if the CFIA does not want the elk captured in the Riding Mountain area released, the province will abide by that decision, Donaghy said.
“They’re the ones responsible for managing the disease.”
Manitoba is also awaiting CFIA’s approval to sell elk taken from the Swan River and Duck Mountain areas of northwestern Manitoba and from the Interlake region during the 1998-99 capture.
Bill Steeds, manager of Manitoba Agriculture’s livestock development and diversification section, expects that should happen this fall.
At least part of the proceeds from the sale would help pay for keeping the elk since their capture. Donaghy said leftover money will likely go into provincial coffers.
Manitoba Agriculture pays $1.50 per elk per day to have the animals cared for. It also pays veterinarian and feed bills. When interviewed last week, Donaghy did not know the total bill.
Steeds said last year that handling and feed costs totalled more than $265,000 between April 1999 and April 2000.
The elk captured from the Swan River, Duck Mountain and Interlake areas have been kept separate from those from the Riding Mountain area.
However, Harms said the elk association does not want any of the animals dispersed into farmed elk herds. He said elk from Duck Mountain Provincial Park and Riding Mountain National Park could have mingled because the distance between the two parks is not great.
“We don’t want them,” he said flatly. “They’re the government’s animals.”
