- Thousands of wild deer must be slaughtered in Saskatchewan
to save the rest of Canada's deer from a brain disease that threatens to
sweep across the country, according to an international panel of researchers.
-
- But the recommendation, announced yesterday at the University
of Saskatchewan after a meeting of leading experts on chronic wasting disease,
was met with resistance from federal and provincial governments. The ministry
responsible for wildlife management in Saskatchewan said it doesn't have
the resources for a massive extermination of 3,000 to 7,000 deer, and the
federal government said it is not inclined to help with the cost.
-
- In any case, somebody must act quickly to contain the
wasting disease, said Ted Leighton, executive director of the Canadian
Cooperative Wildlife Health Centre. Mr. Leighton's centre in Saskatoon
played host to the seven-member panel of scientists from Canada, the United
States, Australia and Belgium.
-
- "The disease could spread from one end of Canada
to another," Mr. Leighton said. "Some mathematical models of
this show that, in 100 years, there would be no deer left."
-
- The mysterious and fatal condition, related to mad-cow
disease, arrived in Canada some time during the 1980s when sickly elk were
imported from a farm in South Dakota. Its presence was not detected until
1996.
-
- Wildlife officials first noticed the disorder in wild
deer four years later, and are still not sure whether it will continue
spreading to wild moose, elk and caribou. The disease is considered a low
risk to humans, although its connection to other brain illnesses is not
fully understood.
-
- The panel's report says animals at 40 game farms in Saskatchewan
and three in Alberta have tested positive for chronic wasting disease.
But an aggressive eradication program by the federal government, costing
$40-million to $60-million, appears "successful, and there are currently
no known infected farms in Canada," the report says.
-
- Governments haven't been so vigilant about fighting the
disease in the wild. Saskatchewan allows hunters in some parts of the province
to attract targets using bait, a practice the report says should be outlawed
because it encourages animals to congregate and spread disease.
-
- The report also calls for sharp increases in provincial
and federal investments in monitoring for chronic wasting disease, along
with eradication of all the deer in a wide swath around any positive tests.
In broader areas around known cases, the report recommends culling about
80 per cent of the herd, until only one deer remains per square kilometre.
-
- That would likely require planeloads of hired marksmen,
Mr. Leighton said, which would be vastly more expensive than Saskatchewan's
existing program of allowing hunters to kill more deer in affected areas
than other parts of the province.
-
- Dave Brewster, manager of resource allocation for Saskatchewan
Environment, said the ministry would consider the recommendation about
bait hunting. But the idea of an organized hunt isn't feasible, he said,
especially across the worst-affected swath of rugged terrain around the
South Saskatchewan River.
-
- "It's certainly desirable, but is it practical?
I suspect it isn't," Mr. Brewster said. "Our ability to reduce
populations very quickly is limited."
-
- Mr. Leighton said the panel didn't envision Saskatchewan
bearing all of the cost, because it would be acting as a vanguard to protect
wildlife in the rest of the country and should be supported by Ottawa.
-
- But Trevor Swerdfager, director-general of the Canadian
Wildlife Service, said his agency would be reluctant to spend money on
killing deer. "I'd say that's highly, highly, highly unlikely."
-
- © Copyright 2004 Bell Globemedia Publishing Inc.
All Rights Reserved.
-
- http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/ArticleNews/TPStory/LA
C/20040805/DEER05/TPInternational/TopStories
|
