Health

CFIA Quarantines Elk Herd in Saskatchewan

by Barbara McPherson | April 17, 2009 at 07:12 pm

116 views | 34 Recommendations | 3 comments

Chronic wasting disease has been found in an elk herd in Saskatchewan, a province of Canada.

REGINA - A large elk farm in Saskatchewan is under quarantine and its animals are to be destroyed after a case of chronic wasting disease was discovered.

Chronic wasting disease has been found in Saskachewan elk herds since 1996. It is known throughout N. America in the deer and elk populations. It is a prion disease that is transmissible (TSE). This transmissible spongiform encephalopathy that is similar to mad cow disease .
TSE in N. America was formerly thought to be restricted to Wyoming, Nebraska and Colorado, but is now found in many states and come provinces of Canada.
To date there have been no verified cases of CWD being transferred to humans. Recently cases of TSE have been found in moose. It is capable of crossing that species barrier. There are prcautions that hunters are advised to take.

Do not shoot, handle or consume an elk or deer that is acting abnormally or appears to be sick. When field-dressing game, wear rubber gloves and minimize the use of a bone saw to cut through the brain or spinal cord (backbone). Bone out the meat. Minimize contact with and do not consume brain or spinal cord tissues, eyes, spleen, or lymph nodes. Always wash hands thoroughly after dressing and processing game meat. (More)

Practical CWD Video for hunters who want to learn and see more found here.

1 See all footage | View Slideshow

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albertacowpoke

at 02:25 on April 18th, 2009

Great post, another blow for this industry which has been suffering lately anyways. A lot of money has been invested in the past couple of decades in Elk, Buffalo and deer farms.

sara star

at 05:04 on April 18th, 2009

How do you quarantine the wilderness? Hunters Beware.

For those who aren't familiar with prions...

Prion: A disease-causing agent that is neither bacterial nor fungal nor viral and contains no genetic material. A prion is a protein that occurs normally in a harmless form. By folding into an aberrant shape, the normal prion turns into a rogue agent. It then coopts other normal prions to become rogue prions.

Prions have been held responsible for a number of degenerative brain diseases, including scrapie (a fatal disease of sheep and goats), mad cow disease, Creutzfeldt-Jacob disease, fatal familial insomnia, kuru, an unusual form of hereditary dementia known as Gertsmann-Straeussler-Scheinker disease, and possibly some cases of Alzheimer's disease.

René

at 09:46 on April 20th, 2009

What are they feeding these elk?

Barbara McPherson

at 18:48 on April 20th, 2009

I don't know but there is no prohibition against feeding ruminants(cattle) to other animals as long as they aren't ruminants too. They render down the bits and put it into high protein food for lots of factory raised animals. Yucky but true.