The province has announced plans to cull up to 100 urban deer from both Cranbrook and Kimberley in order to collect samples to test for Chronic Wasting Disease (CWD).
Five cases of the disease have been identified in the southeast corner of the province since early last year, as Cranbrook has served as the epicentre of the outbreak in the province.
While all CWD cases have been detected in deer outside municipalities, the province is moving forward with a testing program to determine the disease prevalence within high-density urban deer populations in both East Kootenay communities.
The program has a short window, running from Feb. 18-25, which will be conducted in partnership between the province, Cranbrook and Kimberley and 蕯aq鈥檃m. There won't be any immediate urban deer CWD testing beyond Feb. 25th.
A CWD sample is taken from the brain stem or the lymph nodes in the throat, and unfortunately can't be collected in a way to keep the animal alive.
To collect samples, trained personnel will be darting with a tranquilizer gun to sedate the deer, which will then be removed to another location in order to be humanely killed.
Sharpshooting may be another potential option in situations where it may be safe to do so.
"Controlling that urban deer population, which is more closely condensed together, will give us a better shot of testing, number one, to see what the [CWD] numbers are, and protect that wild non-urban deer population as well," said Randene Neill, Minister for Water, Land and Resource Stewardship. "We're focusing on the urban deer population right now, we're trying to get them down to a good population management objective in both towns and then that will also give us a good idea of how much Chronic Wasting Disease is out there."
All samples collected from last fall's hunting season 鈥� approximately 4,000 鈥� have been processed, according to Neill.
In years past, deer culls initiated by the City of Cranbrook were conducted through the use of clover traps and bolt guns, which generated controversy as traps were vandalized and SD memory cards were stolen out of widlife camers placed to monitor clover traps.
Concurrently, there is also a specialized hunt underway for up to 50 wildlife permits held by area residents to be harvested in a specific rural areas west, east and south around Cranbrook.
The first two samples that tested positive for CWD in B.C. were announced in Jan. 2024, from a roadkill whitetail deer south of Cranbrook and a mule deer in the South Country region.
Since then, three more deer hunter-harvested near Cranbrook have also tested positive.
CWD affects cervids, such as deer, moose, elk and caribou, and is a condition of the central nervous system caused by infectious agents called prions, which kill cells in the brain as they accumulate and lead to neurological disease.
Prions, a type of protein, also accumulate in other tissues and may be shed by the infected animal into water or on plants and bedding through saliva, urine and feces.
It is 100 per cent fatal to wildlife with no known treatment.
However, it is not known to affect humans or livestock, although public health guidance recommends that animals with CWD should not be consumed.
More to come.
