Published Date: 2003-01-15 23:50:00
Subject: PRO/AH> Chronic wasting disease, elk - Canada (SK)
Archive Number: 20030115.0123

CHRONIC WASTING DISEASE, ELK - CANADA (SASKATCHEWAN)
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Date: Tue, 14 Jan 2003 17:49:53 -0000
From: A-Lan Banks <A-Lan.Banks@derwent.co.uk>
Source: Edmonton Journal [edited]
<http://www.canada.com/edmonton/edmontonjournal/story.asp?id=2E6FCC67-16EE-4DD4-A383-017BB28FDDF7>

Chronic wasting disease, Saskatchewan
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The Canadian Food Inspection Agency has banned 4 former Saskatchewan elk
farmers from growing grain or raising livestock because their land may
harbor chronic wasting disease organisms. They're [the owners of] among 40
farms in Saskatchewan where elk tested positive for the fatal brain-wasting
disease after a diseased elk was imported from South Dakota in 1989. It
spread when offspring of the infected elk were sold and resold among 39
other farms.
Federal veterinarians have killed about 8300 elk on the 40 Saskatchewan
farms -- and one Alberta farm -- to try to eradicate the disease. It has
cost the federal government CAD 33 million [about USD 24 424 000] to
compensate the farmers for loss of their elk and for disposal costs, said
Dr Lynn Bates, of the Canadian Food Inspection Agency in Winnipeg. She told
a weekend conference in Nisku that the 4 Saskatchewan farms are banned from
raising any livestock or growing grain until it can be proven that deer or
elk won't become reinfected. The ban on grain is to ensure it doesn't end
up in animal feed. There have never been any proven cases of the disease in
humans, and it has only shown up in elk and deer. But while there's no
evidence that cattle or other livestock may get chronic wasting disease,
it's not entirely ruled out.
Chronic wasting disease is believed to be spread not by a bacterium or
virus but by abnormal cellular proteins called prions. The disease is
related to other brain-wasting diseases that include scrapie in sheep and
mad cow disease. "The science at this time says that the environment may
act as a source of the prions in a situation where you have the infection
long-term," Bates said.
Buildings and equipment at the farms have been disinfected, and soil has
been removed from where elk congregated, she said. But removing soil from
an entire farm is impractical. The only way the 4 farms could be farmed
again is to stock the land with elk or deer for at least 4 years to see
whether they become infected, Bates said. But that would be expensive and
there's no money available to do it, she said, nor is there any provision
to compensate farmers prohibited from raising crops. She refused to
identify any of the farms. But elk farmer Dale Alsager, from near
Maidstone, Saskatchewan, said he lives near one of them. Owners have been
left with no way out, he said. Rather than leave them in limbo, he said,
the food inspection agency should eliminate the possibility of the disease
re-emerging on their land. And they should be compensated for being unable
to grow crops, he added. Alsager is among a group of hard-hit Alberta and
Saskatchewan game farmers who are suing the federal government for damages
for having encouraged them to get into game farming.
Since chronic wasting disease was identified in Saskatchewan and Alberta,
prices for farmed elk and deer have collapsed. South Korea halted imports
of elk products from North America, and the US halted sales of trophy deer
and elk to US hunt farms. Saskatchewan has barred imports of male Alberta
deer and elk to its hunt farms. Some drought-stricken farmers short of feed
can't even give their deer or elk away.
--
ProMED-mail
<promed@promedmail.org>
[If it is thought that "contaminated" ground might (note I write "might"
not "may") play a part in the epidemiology of CWD, and possibly BSE, these
ranches, if nothing else, provide a field opportunity for testing this
hypothesis, as well as the bovine risk, if the provincial government is
going to deny the owners the opportunity of using their land commercially.
There is always more to such events than is reported, however. - Mod.MHJ]

See Also

2002
---
Chronic wasting disease, cervids - Canada (Alberta) 20021108.5750
Chronic wasting disease, cervids - Canada (SK) 20021026.5645
Chronic wasting disease, cervids - Canada 20020401.3858
2000
---
Chronic wasting dis., elk - Canada (Saskatchewan) (04) 20001218.2220
Chronic wasting dis., elk - Canada (Saskatchewan) (03) 20001213.2179
Chronic wasting dis., elk - Canada (Saskatchewan) (02) 20000903.1488
Chronic wasting dis., elk - Canada (Saskatchewan) 20000425.0619
........................mhj/pg/sh
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