Alberta program picks up 13 new cases
CAMROSE – Twelve cases
of chronic wasting disease were identified in wild deer in Alberta
during the fall surveillance program.
The 12 new cases, plus an
emaciated deer found in June, brought to 13 the total number of cases of
CWD found in wild deer last year.
Hunters submitted 4,800 wild
deer heads for testing starting Sept. 1.
Ten cases were discovered
in areas where CWD had previously been found, mostly along the
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Saskatchewan border between Lloydminster and Brooks.
However, one
case was discovered 25 kilometres south of Medicine Hat and another just
east of Highway 884 along the Red Deer River.
Eleven of the 12
cases were mule deer and nine were adult males, including an adult male
white-tailed deer.
Seventy-four cases of the disease have been
detected in wild deer in the province since the first case was found in
2005.
Honey council launches save the bees campaign
CALGARY
– The Canadian Honey Council has launched a national awareness campaign
on the plight of the honeybee.
Save Our Bees hopes to raise at
least $250,000 to educate the public about the importance of insect
pollination to the world’s food supply at a time when devastating losses
are being reported around the world. The extra money would also fund
research into diseases and controls against the bees’ enemy, the varroa
mite.
First detected in 1989 in eastern Canada, the mite spreads
viruses when it feeds off the blood of the bee.
The council has
also produced an education module for the lower primary school grades to
demonstrate the importance of pollinators to food production. It is
available on the honey council website and with additional funds the
program could be expanded to the higher grades.
Incident may
spark new look at tolerance levels
REGINA – The head of the
Canadian Grain Commission has said the discovery of genetically modified
flax in Canadian shipments to Europe could lead to more negotiation on
acceptable tolerance levels.
Elwin Hermanson, chief commissioner,
told the Agricultural Producers Association of Saskatchewan meeting in
Regina that the agreements must be workable.
“Obviously zero is a
very difficult number to hit,” he said, referring to zero tolerance for
GM crops entering Europe.
“I think more and more countries are
realizing that and starting to recognize that they need to negotiate
workable arrangements with other countries that will bring some
certainty to the movement of products from one country to another.”
Today’s
sensitive tests that identify the presence of GM material at a level of
0.01 percent are producing different test results at various points
during delivery.
