Province looking for more hunters to get their kills tested for CWD

Saskatchewan’s Ministry of Environment is encouraging more hunters to send in the heads of cervid species for chronic wasting disease (CWD) testing.

The program has been running for years in the province, looking to keep track of the incidence of CWD in animals like deer, moose, elk and caribou, and in which areas of the province it’s occurring.

Richard Espie, wildlife health specialist with the fish, wildlife and lands branch of the ministry, said hunters are urged to send heads in but it’s not a requirement.

“Here in Saskatchewan right now, we’re more interested in encouraging hunters to submit heads from different areas to test and see whether or not they’re positive for CWD. It helps us gauge the spread and prevalence of the disease as well as enact any management considerations we might have in terms of the disease and how effective those management tools might be,” explained Espie.

There’s no evidence at this point to suggest that humans can contract CWD from consuming infected meat, but Espie said officials still don’t recommend it. The main concern in the program is whether the disease is affecting animal populations.

“That’s part of why we’re monitoring them as closely as we are, to try and see whether or not there are impacts currently, or in the future,” said Espie.

The program has received about 1,300 submissions this year, which is far less than the total of 3,300 received through the whole program last year. The last day for submissions to be dropped off is Jan. 21.

Thus far, Espie said, from the animals that have been tested, there’s a prevalence of CWD of about 15 per cent, which is pretty close to the 16 and 17.5 per cent from the last two years.
Espie couldn’t put an exact number at which point the disease would be considered a problem.

“It’s more complicated than just a flat number like that,” he said. “You really kind of have to know whether or not it’s affecting reproductive individuals in the population, and in what way it’s affecting their reproductive capacity and/or mortality, and the ability of them to produce more offspring to recruit into the population.”

Espie also said the number would be different in different species.

It’s getting toward the end of the hunting season now, so the ministry is encouraging more hunters to send in their submissions. Hunters in wildlife management zones 2W, 9, 10, 35 and 37 are being asked to specifically submit mule deer and white-tailed deer heads for testing.