Manitoba reports first chronic wasting disease case; bans hunting where animal found

WINNIPEG –

Officers in Manitoba are reporting what they are saying is the province’s first case of power losing illness, a nervous system dysfunction that impacts giant recreation animals.

The province says in a information launch that on Oct. 14, as a part of its wildlife well being surveillance program, a male mule deer was noticed to be unhealthy and was euthanized in western Manitoba, close to Lake of the Prairies.

Testing discovered the animal to have power losing illness, the discharge says, including it is the primary time it has been present in Manitoba.

The province is instantly implementing a ban on looking deer, moose, caribou and elk within the space to make sure the illness just isn’t unfold via the transport of a diseased carcass.

Persistent losing illness, or CWD, infects animals like deer, moose and caribou and an stricken animal can seem regular for years till it begins to drop extra pounds and co-ordination earlier than dying.

It was first present in Canada in 1996, and since then, it has appeared in deer and elk in Saskatchewan, Alberta and Quebec.

“The province has instantly begun to plan for added CWD surveillance actions within the space surrounding this discovering and has reached out to a number of stakeholders, First Nations, Metis and different teams who have to be conscious,” the provincial information launch said.

“The province will want the complete co-operation of the general public, together with hunters, producers and land-owners to make sure this illness is contained and even eradicated from the realm.”

The discharge notes there isn’t any indication of any connection to farmed elk populations at the moment.

Like mad cow illness or Creutzfeldt-Jakob illness in people, CWD is attributable to prions — misshapen proteins that may persist within the setting for as much as a decade.

In 2019, Alberta discovered 11 per cent of deer and elk submitted by hunters examined optimistic, up from seven per cent in earlier years. It was additionally present in moose for the primary time.

To maintain tainted meat out of the meals provide, Saskatchewan and Alberta require deer and elk farmers to check each animal that dies on their farms, together with slaughtered animals. If the illness is discovered on an Alberta farm, the herd is destroyed and the farmer is prohibited from restocking with animals vulnerable to it.

There have been no instances of cattle catching the illness from wild animals.

The Manitoba information launch notes the province “has had very rigorous reporting and testing necessities for CWD,” which it says embrace making it unlawful to carry sure unprocessed meat into Manitoba.

It additionally notes the elk farming trade has ongoing CWD surveillance, and there have been no reported instances in farmed animals in Manitoba.

The boundaries of the looking ban the place the contaminated mule deer was discovered are nonetheless being decided, the province mentioned.

It mentioned that whereas CWD just isn’t often called a human well being threat, meat from a CWD contaminated animal just isn’t beneficial for consumption and hunters in areas the place the illness has been discovered ought to observe secure carcass dealing with protocols.

This report by The Canadian Press was first printed Nov. 1, 2021.