First case of chronic wasting disease found in an Alberta domestic elk in more than a decade.
An Alberta elk farm is under quarantine after routine testing detected the first case of chronic wasting disease in domestic elk in more than a decade.
The fatal nervous system disease that affects elk, moose and deer was discovered on a farm at an undisclosed location in Alberta early in the year and subsequent testing in mid-January confirmed it, Alberta Agriculture spokesman Mike Long said late Monday.
“I can confirm that there is a case in Alberta in farmed elk and that CFIA (Canadian Food Inspection Agency) is managing the situation,” Long said. “I believe it is just one animal that tested positive.”
It was the first case of chronic wasting disease in domestic elk since an outbreak in 2002 resulted in the extermination or “depopulation” of several herds.
Alberta has more than 200 elk farms that generate more than $10 million in product sales annually.
Long said the heads of slaughtered farm elk are tested routinely as part of a disease monitoring process.
“That’s how this sample was detected,” he said.
He couldn’t say why the province didn’t make the discovery public, deferring questions to the CFIA.
A CFIA spokeswoman said the case would be reported Tuesday in the agency’s monthly disease report, but she could not say why the incident was not made public earlier. She had no other information.
Jeffrey English, spokesman for federal Agriculture Minister Gerry Ritz, said only that tests revealed “a higher per cent of positives than what is commonly found.”
“Positive cases are found regularly in farmed and wild cervids throughout Alberta and Saskatchewan,” he said in an email.
Just last October, Agriculture Minister Verlyn Olson boasted there hadn’t been a case of chronic wasting disease in domestic elk in the province in more than a decade, despite testing of more than 50,000 animals.
Darrel Rowledge, of the Alliance for Public Wildlife, said he believes the elk was a two-year-old male from a farm in east central Alberta in the Lloydminster area.
He is concerned that two levels of government kept the discovery secret.
“Part of the reason this is so alarming, this would not have come out if it weren’t for whistleblowers within the government,” said Rowledge.
Just last fall, the province passed legislation to make Alberta one of the first jurisdictions in North America to proclaim that any elk that stray from a farm remain the property of the farmers for the rest of their lives. Previously they were often shot by Wildlife officers as a precaution against the spread of wasting disease.
Internal government briefing notes obtained by the Herald last spring warned the move would trigger concerns about “the implications for disease or genetic contamination, confusion and uncertainty on behalf of hunters who shoot tagged elk, (and) issues with private elk on private property, including property damage and compensation.”
But Olson downplayed that concern based on Alberta’s disease-free status and the relatively few incidents of domestic elk escaping to the wild.
Chronic wasting disease was first detected in a research facility in Colorado in 1967 and surfaced at a Saskatchewan elk farm in 1996, according to the CFIA website. Testing is mandatory in Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba and the Yukon but is voluntary in other jurisdictions.
The disease spreads from animal to animal through saliva and feces. There is no treatment or vaccine.
The source of the last infection in Alberta in 2002 was never determined.