[Mike]

Hi Guys
Naturally, I’ll be sending this along to SAD; I thought you all
would like to know too.
Bridget

http://www.nipawinjournal.com/story.php?id=172550
Deer infected with Chronic Wasting Disease discovered near Nipawin
A white tailed deer found near Nipawin, has tested positive for
Chronic Wasting Disease.
By Robert Arnason
Journal Staff
Wednesday July 13, 2005
Nipawin Journal — Deer infected with Chronic Wasting Disease
discovered near Nipawin
By Robert Arnason
Journal Staff

A white tailed deer found near Nipawin, has tested positive for
Chronic Wasting Disease.

CWD is a contagious neurological disease affecting deer and elk.
It causes a degeneration of the brains of infected animals and is in
the same family of prion diseases as BSE.
“We don’t want to put out an alarm situation. This is one case out
there,” said Marvin Hlady, a wildlife specialist with Sask
Environment.

This is the first deer diagnosed with CWD in northeast Saskatchewan.
Since a wild animal was found with CWD in 2000, there have been 68
reported cases in Saskatchewan, with the majority of cases in Sask
Landing Park, north of Swift Current.

Hlady emphasized that deer meat is still safe to eat.
“Right now there is no evidence that people can get CWD.”
On May 19 Albert Swan discovered a dead deer inside a shed on his
property – five miles south of Love adjacent to the White Fox River.
On May 20, conservation officers from the Sask Environment office in
Nipawin picked up the animal and sent it to the Canadian Cooperative
Wildlife Health Centre at the University of Saskatchewan for
testing.

The results came back positive and in late June, a Canadian Food
Inspection Agency lab in Ontario confirmed the diagnosis.
“We will be using this information… as part of our CWD management
program,” Hlady said.

Scientists are not certain how CWD is spread, but it may be passed
on via feces, saliva or urine. It is also believed that a high deer
population increases the risk of a CWD epidemic.
“A recognized way to reduce spread is to reduce deer numbers,” Hlady
said.

Sask Environment has no plans for a deer cull in the northeast, but
they will hold a public meeting in the region.
“We have started making preparations to answer any questions in a
public forum,” said Rick Douslin, Compliance manager at the Nipawin
office for Sask Environment. Douslin expects the public meeting will
be in early August.