Province brings in restrictions after discovery of chronic-wasting disease

Photo: Terry Kreeger, Wyoming Game and Fish and Chronic Wasting Disease Alliance

A deer showing signs of Chronic Wasting Disease.

The provincial government has implemented testing and transport restrictions after the first cases of chronic-wasting disease was found in B.C. deer.

At the end of last month two samples, from a hunted male mule deer and a road-killed female white-tailed deer, tested positive for CWD.

The measures announced Tuesday mandates testing for CWD and restricts the transport and disposal of any road-killed cervids (deer, moose, elk, caribou) in the area where the first cases of the disease were found. A map of the restriction area, south of Cranbrook, B.C., is here.

A degenerative brain disease, CWD is spread in deer, elk, moose and caribou through infectious prions, deformed proteins that accumulate in the animal's body. Within 18 months of infection, the animals can start showing signs of weight loss, drooling, and poor coordination.

“It is 100 per cent fatal. Every animal infected with this disease will die,” said provincial government wildlife health biologist Cait Nelson

Before a sick animal dies, it can spread the prions through feces, which get into the water and can be ingested by other deer.

The public is encouraged to report any sightings of deer, elk, moose or caribou exhibiting any of these symptoms: weight loss, drooling, poor co-ordination, stumbling, generally sick with no obvious reason, to the 24/7 Report All Poachers and Polluters Line (1 877 952-7277).

The province says there is no direct evidence that the disease can be transmitted to humans and there have been no cases of the disease in humans.

“However, to prevent any potential risk of transmission or illness, Health Canada and the World Health Organization recommend people not eat meat or other parts of an animal infected with chronic wasting disease,” the province said in a statement.

The province already has had a surveillance and response plan for chronic wasting disease in place since it was detected in neighbouring jurisdictions.

Nelson is a part of that effort and hopes her team has caught the disease early enough to contain it, but that it’s still not clear how much the disease has spread. She says her team continues to work with hunters to try and isolate more samples.

Jesse Zeman, president of the BC Wildlife Federation whose hunters work with Nelson's team, says the discovery of the disease in B.C. has sent shockwaves through the hunting community.

He says hunters who rely on wild meat to subsist will now have to process and freeze animals for two to three months while they wait for test results to come back.

“It’s a big change,” he said.

Since its first discovery in 1967, the disease has been found in South Korea, Norway, Sweden, Finland and the United States. In Canada, CWD has been mostly isolated to farmed deer and elk, as well as wild deer, elk and moose, in Alberta and Saskatchewan.

While no cases have ever been found in humans but some researchers say they have found worrying signs such a jump could be possible.

In August 2022, researchers at the University of Calgary carrying out experiments in mice found chronic wasting disease “might infect humans” and that “the presence of infectious prions in feces is concerning because if this occurs in humans, it is a source for human-to-human transmission.”

Last month, the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy out of the University of Minnesota announced it was launching an international effort to prepare for possible chronic wasting disease spillover event into humans or farm animals.

Nelson says research has so far not conclusively answered whether the spread to humans will ever happen. In livestock, she acknowledged there’s some evidence of the disease “pushing the species barrier” and passing to other animals.

“We don’t know everything about this disease,” she said. “That’s why they recommend not to eat the animal.”

with files from Stefan Labbe