Chronic wasting disease has been found on another Saskatchewan elk farm.
But federal officials and industry representatives say it doesn’t change their view that the outbreak is under control and being mopped up.
“Everything still is in a very tight connection back to the source farm,” said Canadian Food Inspection Agency veterinarian George Luterbach.
“They’re all tied.”
The newly discovered infected herd — the 18th found in the past year — was not one originally targeted when the agency started exterminating whole herds.
Read Also
Agriculture ministers agree to AgriStability changes
federal government proposed several months ago to increase the compensation rate from 80 to 90 per cent and double the maximum payment from $3 million to $6 million
However, most of the animals in the new herd came from the “source” farm that the agency believes spread the infection to all the others.
Officials did not originally depopulate the herd because they believe the disease reveals itself within three years of infecting an animal.
No animals from the source herd were sold to this herd within the past three years and apparently none had signs of CWD.
However, Luterbach said there is now evidence that the disease was active within the herd, but was not recognized as CWD.
The new infected herd, which so far has only one infected animal, was created by the source farm’s owner, who transferred a number of bull elk there starting in 1993.
All of the animals sold out of this farm in the past three years have been destroyed, as have all the animals on the farm itself, a total of 650 animals.
About 150 animals were sold to 11 other farms. Results on these traceouts will not be available for about a month, Luterbach said.
Results of all the traces from earlier found infected farms will also not be known for another few weeks, but Luterbach said ongoing tests have not revealed any more cases.
Serge Buy, executive director of the Canadian Cervid Council, said he was not terribly troubled by the new case because it is on a farm directly connected to the original outbreak.
“Things are unfolding as they should,” said Buy.
He said all the cases so far are directly connected, so there is no reason to fear the disease is on a rampage.
“What’s out of control is foot-and-mouth in Europe,” said Buy.
“What’s under control is chronic wasting disease in Canada.”
Foot-and-mouth spreads rapidly and is hard to catch once it begins infecting herds.
CWD spreads slowly and can be caught by throwing a net over farms that have been in direct contact with infected animals.
Buy expects to be able to provide South Korean authorities with definitive information on the rise and fall of Canada’s CWD cases within a couple of months.
That, he thinks, will be enough to satisfy Korean authorities who have shut the border to Canadian and American elk because of the outbreak.
“We are confident the borders will be opened, probably by mid-summer,” said Buy.
