The province has confirmed a fifth case of Chronic Wasting Disease (CDW) from a hunter-harvested white tail buck sample, taken this past fall hunting season near Cranbrook.
The southeast corner of the province has been the epicentre of the outbreak, as four cases have been identified southwest of Cranbrook, while another was detected from the South Country region near Newgate.
A number of wildlife advocacy organizations are coordinating to hold a CWD Awareness and information session scheduled for March 13 at the Heritage Inn, starting at 7 p.m.
The session will include an overview of the provincial government’s CWD management plan from Holger Bohm, a wildlife biologist and ungulate specialist for the Ministry of Water, Lands and Resource Stewardship.
Recent research and other CWD mitigation strategies will be presented by Jessica Russel, an emergency management and ecology consultant who has proven success working on national-scale programs.
Attendees will be able to ask questions of the experts following the presentation.
“With new cases being confirmed in the Kootenay region, this is a perfect time for conservationists and interested citizens to review what has been done to date and what other options are available to slow the spread of CWD,” said Glenn Flynn, past president of the EKWA and a director at the BCWF.
As part of a CWD surveillance program, the province has set up a management zone and introduced mandatory testing in various management units in the East Kootenay region. The province has also restricted transporting carcasses outside of the management zone and has also increased testing capacity at a lab in Abbotsford to speed up turnaround times.
CWD affects cervids, such as deer, moose, elk and caribou, and is a condition of the central nervous system caused by infectious agents called prions, which kill cells in the brain as they accumulate and lead to neurological disease.
Prions, a type of protein, also accumulate in other tissues and may be shed by the infected animal into water or on plants and bedding through saliva, urine and feces.
It is 100 per cent fatal to wildlife with no known treatment.
However, it is not known to affect humans or livestock, although public health guidance recommends that animals with CWD should not be consumed.
According to the BC Wildlife Federation, a recent study released in Wyoming determined that “maintaining hunting pressure on adult males is an important tactic for slowing CWD epidemics within mule deer herds.”
“While prevalence remains very low, the B.C. Wildlife Federation believes we have an opportunity to take decisive action to limit its spread,” said BCWF Executive Director Jesse Zeman. “The BCWF is committed to working with the province to improve our response and management of CWD. The recent study conducted in Wyoming concluded that hunting is the best tool for managing CWD, meaning B.C. has the tools and opportunity to keep prevalence low.”
The province is currently allowing a specialized hunt for deer specifically around Cranbrook in order to collect samples through 50 wildlife permits.
The permits only allow for harvesting deer within a specific area surrounding the City of Cranbrook, and not within the city limits.
