Minister of Water, Land and Resource Stewardship Randene Neill says urban deer populations in Cranbrook and Kimberley will be tested for chronic wasting disease (CWD) over the winter.
According to a provincial count, about 510 deer live in Cranbrook and Kimberley.
“We’re planning to test 100 deer from each community, so 200 deer in total, over the winter months. This is when they’re more centralized in urban areas,” said Neill.
“We think those testing numbers will give us a good indication of how much chronic wasting disease there is in the area.”
Some of this testing work is already underway.
“We have about 50 samples so far. Most of those have been roadkill or they’re already in the queue to be tested,” said Neill.
Neill says hunters submitted about 3,300 deer samples for testing this year.
“We try to do these tests in a really timely manner. We need the results as quickly as possible for the community, the scientists and the First Nations, so we have the best and latest picture of what’s happening,” said Neill.
That said, results still take weeks if not months to come back after a sample is submitted.
“We’re working on speeding up that testing process and that timeline. With the urban deer that we’re testing now, we probably won’t know the results until Late January or early February,” said Neill.
“That’s because the lab is full. One of my priorities is to make sure we get those answers as accurately and as quickly as possible, so if a mobile testing lab makes the most sense and will speed up the process, then it’s something that we should do.”
Neill says a cull of urban deer is not being considered right now, but it could be a potential option if CWD is found in more samples.
“At this point, we need to understand where we are with how many infected deer with get from this sampling of 200,” said Neill.
“If our scientists say a cull is the best option, then it’s something we would look at, and if they say it isn’t, then we’ll look at that too. At this point, we are not looking at complete and total cull, we are looking at testing enough animals to get an accurate idea of how many animals are infected with CWD and then we’ll look at the next steps.”
Restrictions are still in place in hunting zones surrounding the Cranbrook area, where CWD was first detected in B.C., including mandatory testing.
These regulations apply to Management Units 4-1 to 4-8 and 4-20 to 4-25, which includes areas east of Trail, south of Nelson, the Creston Valley, and most of the East Kootenay.
Carcasses may be transported outside of those areas as long as all spinal & neck bone/material is removed.
CWD is an infectious and fatal prion illness that affects the cervid family, such as deer, elk, moose and caribou.
While there is no direct evidence that it can be transmitted to humans, Health Canada says you should not eat any part of an infected animal.
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