The discovery in northeastern Saskatchewan of two wild elk that tested positive for chronic wasting disease earlier this year has had little impact on elk farmers in the area.
Hugh Hunt, executive director of Saskatchewan Environment’s fish and wildlife branch, said wildlife officials are continuing to observe the situation and will consult with members of a provincial CWD working group to see if additional monitoring and control measures are warranted.
So far, no special steps have been taken to limit contact between farmed elk and animals living in the wild.
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The two infected animals were discovered in early April about 10 kilometres west of Nipawin. They marked the first time that CWD had been found in wild elk populations in Saskatchewan
“It’s not the type of thing where we would see a lot of changes in the short term,” said Hunt, when asked about enhanced management efforts in the area.
“We’re talking about a longer term direction of how we might look at managing elk in a different manner if indeed there is judged to be a reason to do that.”
Hunt said the discovery of infected elk in the wild raises the possibility of the disease being transmitted from farmed elk to wild animals, and vice versa.
“There have been positive cervid farms in the area,” Hunt said.
There is no reason to suspect that the two infected elk were escapees from an elk farm, he added.
“There were no ear tags and there were no holes in the ears … so as a consequence there’s no reason to believe that these animals were anything but animals from the wild.”
Officials from Canadian Co-operative Wildlife Health Centre in Saskatoon and others from Saskatchewan Environment have confirmed that CWD was not likely the cause of death in the two infected elk.
“The younger animal was found dead in a pea field near a road: it suffered from severe trauma consistent with being hit by a vehicle,” said a Saskatchewan Environment announcement.
“The older animal was found dead in a field and looked like it had been dead for three or four days. Only the head was submitted (for testing) so confirmation of the cause of death was not possible.”
Before the discovery, CWD had been confirmed in farmed cervids in Saskatchewan and in wild populations of white-tailed and mule deer, but never in a wild elk.
Since 2005, more than 20 cases of CWD have been reported in wild deer within a 50 km radius of Nipawin.
Trent Bollinger, a wildlife pathologist with the wildlife health centre, said wild deer populations will probably continue to be the main carriers of the disease in the area.
However, the discovery that wild elk are also becoming infected raises concerns about the transmission of the disease across fences.
“It’s always a concern,” said Bollinger.
“There’s contact between wild deer and wild elk as well, but there’s probably more contact between the same species so this is going to be an ongoing concern when you have CWD outside the fence and the possibility of it being spread back to captive animals.”
Luke Perkins, past-president of the Saskatchewan Elk Breeders Association, said the fact that two wild elk have contracted the disease should have little effect on the industry.
“It’s another case of CWD. I don’t think it’s alarming or by any means that it should really be a surprise,” said Perkins, who raises elk near Star City, Sask., about 60 km from where the two diseased elk were found.
“We’ve had the disease in elk behind the fence before so it shouldn’t be a big surprise if a wild one dies of it.”
CWD has never been recorded in Manitoba in either farmed or wild animals.
As of January 2008, Alberta had confirmed three cases of CWD in farmed cervids and 34 cases in wild deer since September 2005.
