Health Canada, which oversees the federal Pest Management Regulatory Agency (PMRA), announced Monday evening it has authorized a “time-limited and controlled” emergency-use registration for the rodent poison for those two provinces, running until November 2027.

WHY IT MATTERS: Other pest controls are available for use against gophers but farmers find strychnine both more effective and easier to use.

The new decision follows the federal government’s cancellations of all registered uses of strychnine in recent years, and a joint application for the product’s emergency use filed by the two provinces’ agriculture ministries last October.

PMRA had rejected that joint application in February, saying its proposals “did not provide sufficient means to address the risks of concern identified in the re-evaluation that led to strychnine’s cancellation.”

The earlier cancellations had been based on an updated environmental risk assessment, which had found no “practical risk-reduction measures to protect non-target animals” if they fed on strychnine-poisoned pest or predator animal carcasses or directly on poisoned gopher bait.

However, Health Canada said Monday, the two provinces last week filed a revised joint emergency-use request which includes “additional restrictions and mitigations … to lower the environmental risk to an acceptable level.”

The “significant” added measures in the new plan include a “reduced geographical scope” and “revised product stewardship program,” among others, Health Canada said.

Since strychnine’s uses were cancelled, farmers and ranchers have been raising concerns about on-farm efficacy of other products still registered for use against gophers.

The temporary use of strychnine will help farmers address “multi-million dollars worth of damage” in various crops from a recent spike in populations of gophers, a.k.a. Richardson’s ground squirrels, Health Canada said Monday.

Health Canada noted the Prairies have been experiencing “abnormally dry conditions, which (affect) the sustainability and quality of farmlands and allowed the population of these gophers to increase significantly.”

Reaction so far

“Saskatchewan producers have been clear about the challenges they face in managing gophers with the limited tools currently available,” provincial Agriculture Minister David Marit said Monday in Health Canada’s release. “We’re pleased to see the emergency use request granted as a practical opportunity for producers to demonstrate how strychnine can help protect their crops and pastures from continued damage.”

“Alberta’s producers have faced significant challenges managing (gophers) and the loss of this control method was difficult and costly for many in the ag sector,” RJ Sigurdson, Alberta’s minister for agriculture and irrigation, said in the same release.

“I’m confident that, with this effective tool back in the hands of our producers, they will be able to better manage their operations and reduce excessive crop and grassland losses due to the overpopulation of (Richardson’s ground squirrels) throughout the Prairies.”

“Innovative and collaborative efforts by all levels of government are needed to support the domestic agriculture industry especially during this period of uncertainty,” federal Health Minister Marjorie Michel and Agriculture Minister Heath MacDonald said in the same release. “Our governments’ shared commitment of supporting Canadian farmers, our economy, and food security led us to work together to address a compounding threat.”

The post Saskatchewan, Alberta farmers get strychnine against gophers until late 2027 appeared first on Alberta Farmer Express.

“Today is kind of special to me given that this is the government’s 10th red tape reduction bill since 2019,” said Nally during a press conference held that same day.

“Alberta has reduced red tape by 35 per cent since 2019. We’ve eliminated nearly 220,000 regulatory requirements and completed hundreds of initiatives to reduce red tape. Cumulatively, all this work has generated more than $3 billion in savings for Albertans and Alberta business,” he said.

Bill 10 will make amendments to legislation across four different ministries.

Amendments for the Ministry of Agriculture and Irrigation would help create new tourism opportunities in rural Alberta and improve the viability of Alberta’s domestic cervid (elk and deer) industries by allowing producers to establish harvest preserves, also known as hunt farms.

RJ Sigurdson, Minister of Agriculture and Irrigation, said he has been told by the cervid industry that there have been many changes when it comes to domestic production over the last few decades.

“Export opportunities are very limited. Alberta, many decades ago, looked at a diversification plan, moving out into areas to domestically farm cervids,” said Sigurdson.

“What we heard from that industry was that due to limited export opportunities, they were looking at us to be able to consider cervid harvest preserves, to allow that to happen within the province of Alberta, so they have an additional opportunity for revenue. This is critical for their industry at this time when they’re struggling to be successful in that space.”

Sigurdson said cervid farming is a sustainable practice. A lot of the elk are raised in areas where cattle or other livestock cannot be raised.

The cervid industry has approached Sigurdson on multiple occasions and said cervid harvest preserves were necessary to have a sustainable future, he said.

Cervid harvesting is already practiced in Saskatchewan and in other jurisdictions of Canada.

“We see it as a reasonable opportunity to have that same activity here through these cervid harvest preserves. Of course, they’re going to be under strict criteria,” he said.

The Ministry of Agriculture and Irrigation will have a say in how harvest preserves are created, and that animals are harvested in the most ethical manner.

Sigurdson said cervid harvest preserves will not result in an increase in chronic wasting disease (CWD) or other diseases. There has been documented cross contact and occasional disease spread between farmed and wild cervids, as well as documented CWD in the wild population.

Sigurdson said the cervid harvest preserves don’t change endemic and non-endemic CWD zones, and the high standards used for testing in domestic cervid populations will be maintained.

“What I will say is under the domestic side, there is a very strict policy that all cervids are tested for CWD at harvest, to ensure we’re monitoring and taking a look at CWD and ensuring to minimize the spread in the province of Alberta,” he said.

Cervid harvest preserves will not change the high standards of animal and foreign animal disease control in the province, he said.

Sigurdson said harvest preserves bring opportunities for tourism and economic growth.

“I would say that from what we’ve seen in other provinces, it does create a tourism aspect to it — a hunting tourism that supports a lot of remote communities that normally don’t see those additional dollars. It does create a lot of potential there. We see opportunities for both cervid harvest preserves and Indigenous communities too,” he said.

Joseph Schow, Minister of Jobs, Economy, Trade and Immigration, said hunters and anglers coming from elsewhere help promote Alberta’s products, and bolster local economics.

People who come to hunt from outside the province buy local products and use tourist accommodations.

“We measure success in terms of visitor spend. Our goal is $25 billion by 2035,” said Schow.

Other components of Bill 10 included changes to Canadian citizenship and public health-care numbers to be included on piece of identification like driver’s licenses. The Fair Registration Practices Act will be amended so first-time applicants who are professionals with international experience have access to working in regulated professions. The All-Seasons Resort Act will streamline year-round, resort-based development on public land and allow private lands to be part of an all-season resort.

The post Cervid harvest preserves to be developed in the province under Bill 10 appeared first on Alberta Farmer Express.

A handful of provincial conservation groups have voiced their concerns over a proposal to convert more than 3,000 acres of municipally held native grasslands into irrigated cultivated land to grow crops.

In a joint news release, the Alberta chapter of the Wildlife Society, the Alberta Wilderness Association, the southern Alberta chapter of the Canadian Parks and Wilderness Society, Nature Alberta and the Southern Alberta Group for the Environment asks that six sections of land located near Scope Reservoir east of Vauxhall, Alta., be kept in its current form.

The land is currently leased to the Vauxhall Stock Grazing Association, but that group has been informed its lease will not be renewed in 2026.

According to a Calgary Herald article, Cliff Wallis, a board member with the Alberta Wilderness Association, recently visited the site and saw species that included the chestnut-collared longspur, which Birds Canada says has declined by 95 per cent, as well as barn swallows and pronghorn.

Wallis was on a hand for the first of a series of public meetings by the Oldman Lease Holders Association to address leaseholders’ concerns over a borrowing bylaw proposed by the municipal district.

The bylaw would provide as much as $6 million to change the land from grazing to irrigated cropland land in partnership with the Bow River Irrigation District.

A string of public meetings in Vauxhall, Enchant, Hays, Grassy Lake and Taber hope to collect upward of 800 signatures from local residents on a petition that would block third and final reading of the borrowing bylaw, opting for a public vote if the project should commence.

“Native grasslands are some of the most threatened ecosystems on the planet. Sure, there’s a couple of well sites on the roads, but it’s native grasslands, it’s species at risk and it’s in good shape,” said Wallis at the OLHA meeting in Vauxhall on Sept. 9.

“We’ve been looking after it, we’re quite happy. We have a good relationship, both with farmers and with ranchers. I sat on the minister’s committee for the Water Act in 1995 and we made sure that people’s water rights were protected. We understand both sides of this, but when you have a disappearing resource with that, it’s our duty to look after it, trying to protect them. We also see it as an economic issue.…

“We funded the things in the campaigns and counties that we can rely on longevity here, so we need that mix, so don’t forget about that. It is an economic issue. It is a conservation issue. I was appointed to the Order of Canada for my work on nature conservation in 2023, so I try to find the solutions here. There are groups that have money, (maybe) turn it back to the province and maybe there’s some payments back to the county, or in Canada, in some kind of conservation. Let’s talk about it. There is a stewardship here that we appreciate, and I think it should be rewarded, not punished.”

The proposed project is a 3,100-acre carve-out from the 69,280 acres of municipally owned and 160,800 acres of crown-owned lands that are currently accessible for ranching and grazing operations within the municipality, according to the MD of Taber website.

The changes to expiring grazing and cultivated leases in the area have been a contentious issue for months, with delegations from both sides expressing their viewpoints during council meetings and public information sessions.

The proposed project involves only a small portion of native grasslands in the MD, but the Vauxhall Stock Grazing Association and local ranchers say they are worried about the precedent it could set.

They say that under the agreement with the BRID, a land sale can be facilitated with a year’s notice or grant a lease to a third party for an alternate use with 30-days written notice.

Ranchers are worried it could theoretically swing the balance over to high-value irrigated crop production and away from land stewardship of native grasslands if future councils were so inclined.

“More or less, we are just trying to make people aware of the situation,” Daryl Johnson, vice -resident of the Vauxhall Stock Grazing Association, said in an interview.

“So now the MD is in this situation where they have all this land, and there’s of course, all these different pressures on them.”

He said council has told the association it has received inquiries about all of the native prairie grasslands in the MD that are used for grazing.

“We’re just hoping to make things work for everybody, of course. But at the end of the day, there needs to be a fair deal, and there needs to be the recognition of those leaseholder rights that have been there for as long as these lands have been (tax-recovery) seized, really. The changes to these leases have massive impacts.”

The post Conservation groups enter grazing lease debate appeared first on Alberta Farmer Express.

“It’s a real world experiment that we’re seeing play out,” said Cory Anderson, co-director of the CWD program at the Center for Infections Disease Research and Policy (CIDRAP) at the university.

CWD is a fatal, neurodegenerative disease found in cervid species like white-tailed deer, mule deer, elk and moose. The disease was first detected in farmed elk and white-tailed deer in Alberta in 2002, and the first cases in wild deer were detected in 2005.

CWD has been detected in more than 6,100 cervids in Alberta, primarily mule deer, since 2005. The first cases were detected along Alberta’s eastern boarder, but it continues to spread westward along major east-west watersheds. The disease now occurs west of Highway 2 from Athabasca south and into the southern foothills of the province.

The disease has also been present in areas like Saskatchewan and some U.S. states for decades.

Like the much more infamous BSE, CWD is caused by infectious prions, which are misfolded cellular proteins, according to CIDRAP’s website. They can interact with normal proteins and create a chain reaction of conversion into misfolded proteins.

While prions are likely transmitted from animal to animal by direct or indirect contact with body fluid or tissues, they are also highly stable in the environment and may remain infectious for years or even decades as they accumulate in the landscape, the report said. As more animals become sick, the chance rises for animals to be exposed and for disease “spillover” to other species.

That exposure doesn’t even touch on meat. Every year, hunters in areas like Wisconsin — where a significant proportion of wild deer are believed to be infected — are eating venison whether proven to be positive for CWD or not, Anderson said.

“The implications of long-term human exposure to CWD prions and the disease manifestation in non-cervid animals and humans are unknown,” the report said. “Although the cervid-to-human species barrier appears strong, that could change as new prion strains emerge.”

In Canada, federal government materials stress that there has not been a human case of CWD, but that people should not handle or consume meat from a known CWD-positive animal as a precaution.

Non-cervids

The CIDRAP report, compiled by working groups of experts from across the U.S. and Canada, notes that significant gaps exist in what is known about CWD spillover.

For the most part, surveillance for CWD among non-cervid wild animals isn’t happening, it said.

The Canadian Food Inspection Agency, when asked about national surveillance efforts said that, while surveillance is a provincial responsibility, “there has been no known transmission of CWD to humans and no known transmission to non-cervid animals (cows, other livestock, or pets) in a natural setting.”

“There’s been no cases of infection under natural conditions,” said Iga Stasiak, a wildlife health specialist with the province of Saskatchewan.

Some lab experiments have demonstrated infection in other species like raccoons and swine, which demonstrates some level of risk, Stasiak explained. However, in those studies they’ve inoculated the prion material directly into the brains of the animal subjects.

“We have to be very careful in extrapolating the results of these experimental studies into natural conditions,” Stasiak said. “Those circumstances are very different.”

Some research has found CWD prions in the tissues of feral swine, said Anderson. However, they were found at low levels and did not appear to have progressed to actual infection.

The CIDRAP report calls for improved CWD surveillance among cervids and non-cervids that might share habitats with livestock, “to improve the likelihood of detecting potential spillover incidents.”

The report also recommends collecting data on different strains of CWD, which could have different risks for interspecies transmission.

“We know from research that’s been conducted that different strains can have unique host ranges,” Anderson said. “We don’t even conduct surveillance to understand what the strain picture looks like.”

The report also recommends more study of CWD in large animals to learn more about clinical signs, and how prions may be shed and transmitted.

Human health

The report recommends more studies following groups who are more likely to face exposure to CWD, like people who eat deer or elk meat from areas with high disease prevalences. It also suggests promoting more awareness of the risk of CWD spillover among the medical community, including the importance of autopsies on suspected cases of human prion disease.

Current efforts in Canada include advising people to avoid eating meat from infected animals and to take precautions when handling carcasses. Farmed cervids known to be infected with CWD can’t enter the food supply.

Public health organizations also monitors for CWD in humans through the Canadian Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease Surveillance System. Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease is a prion disease known to infect humans.

The Saskatchewan government “contributes to research and epidemiological surveillance for prion diseases in humans,” a spokesperson for that province’s ministry of health said.

However, Health Canada notes on its website that there’s little evidence to suggest humans can be infected with CWD, though there’s some evidence of risk to primates.

If the risk of CWD is so low, why take precautions?

Humans have contracted other prion diseases. Bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) has been transmitted to humans, Stasiak said.

There are also significant unknowns. The incubation period of CWD in humans is unknown. It could take decades for a case to appear. There’s also the risk of CWD strains evolving over time.

Avoiding meat from infected animals is “more of a precautionary measure,” Stasiak said.

For decades, hunters in the Prairies and parts of the U.S. have been eating infected meat with no documented increase of prion diseases, she said.

Sharing the load

The CIDRAP report noted that the bulk of CWD management tends to fall to the provinces, states and Indigenous governments. This makes for significant variation in approaches, depending on resources available and political willingness to address the issue.

Wildlife agencies also bear much of the load and may see CWD as purely a wildlife issue, it added.

In some states, Anderson said, the department of natural resources will foot the bill for hunters to test animals. They have a certain quota of tests needed for surveillance. Beyond that, there’s little incentive to test, such as for food safety reasons.

“If they have suddenly 30,000 people who are interested in having their animal testing, that costs them a lot of money,” Anderson said.

“It’s kind of a weird dynamic of like, you want people to make informed decisions if they’re in an area where there’s CWD,” he said.

“But from a wildlife standpoint, with a finite budget, they’re not necessarily super keen about footing the bill for way more tests than they need.”

In Alberta, hunters must submit samples from all deer killed in numerous designated wildlife management units (WMUs) for CWD testing. Some areas require mandatory submissions for white-tail and mule deer, while others are mandatory for mule deer only.

The CIDRAP report advocates for improved funding for “state and tribal” wildlife agencies to address new, interdisciplinary conservation challenges and to ensure they’re capable of supporting a CWD spillover response.

The report also calls for “interdisciplinary collaborations among government agencies, researchers, public health officials, wildlife managers, tribal nations, veterinarians, and physicians to facilitate sharing of knowledge, data, resources and best practices.”

It also recommends collaboration between agencies to create spillover response plans.

Saskatchewan, for example, has a One Health Committee in which the environment, agriculture and health departments work together on response plans and communication for any disease that might concern both wildlife and human health, Stasiak said.

The CFIA is responsible for enforcement of the Health of Animals Act and Regulations, a federal spokesperson said. That includes matters related to “response policy” for farmed cervids, approval of provincial laboratories for CWD testing, and regulating imports and exports of cervids and cervid products.

Other responsibilities are split between federal departments, the spokesperson said. For instance, Environment and Climate Change Canada supports research of prion diseases in wildlife under federal jurisdiction, “particularly focusing on the risk of CWD transmission to caribou populations listed under the Species at Risk Act.”

Parks Canada is responsible for CWD surveillance in national parks.

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Anne Hubbs, senior wildlife biologist with the Alberta government, says domestic sheep and goats can commonly carry a bacterium that can cause pneumonia and large-scale population die-offs of Bighorn sheep following close contact with an infected animal.

“There are no vaccines or treatments for wild sheep, so maintaining physical separation from domestic sheep and goats is very important,” Hubbs says.

The post Don’t let domestic sheep mix with Bighorns appeared first on Alberta Farmer Express.

The aim is to understand how many bats and amphibians live in the watershed, in southeastern Alberta, and how they’re distributed.

The group is particularly interested in the little brown myotis bat and the northern leopard frog. The bats are endangered and the frogs are threatened.

“This project is largely to fill some of the data gaps that we have in the Milk River watershed, in particular on private land,” said Tyler Eresman, wildlife and outreach technician with the council.

The watershed group has done some work with little brown bats before, but has never done a project on amphibians.

Eresman said the voluntary program includes education and working with private landholders.

“It’s not only to increase their knowledge and help give them some information about how to manage for these species, if we find them, but also give them the opportunity to participate in habitat stewardship projects, not only for improving the habitat of the target species, but to help their operations.”

The Milk River watershed covers more than 6,000 square kilometres and includes four counties: Warner, Cardston, Forty Mile and Cypress.

Ears open

The bat and frog monitoring project will be done using acoustic monitoring. Monitoring devices are placed in the field and programmed to turn on at specific times to record all sounds.

Once the devices are removed, Eresman will listen to the recordings.

“For amphibians, it’s just like a regular acoustic microphone. It’s just recording regular sounds like you and me talking.

“But for bats, we have to use specific ultrasonic microphones which record a much higher frequency and require a bit more work to listen to them and find out what’s going on.

“It’s basically just listening to the calls, specifically breeding calls for the amphibians and search call sequences for bats when they are flying around at night.”

The little brown myotis bat has been deemed an endangered species due mainly to white nose fungus. The fungus was introduced to North America in 2006 or 2007 and confirmed in Alberta for the first time in 2022.

“It’s a fungus that can cause mortality in bats and wakes them up during the hibernation phase,” Eresman said. “It depletes their energy reserves. It spreads mostly by contact and there are high mortality rates, especially on the East Coast.

“Not much is known about how it will affect the more northwestern population, because they may not hibernate in such large groups due to the absence of large caves and such. The fungus has been detected in Alberta in a few locations, one of which is within the Milk River watershed.”

The northern leopard frog is threatened because of habitat loss, wetland reduction, land conversion, pesticide use and climate change. The introduction of recreational fish species can also pose a threat because some fish eat tadpoles.

This is the second time the watershed has surveyed bats. A previous two-year project was also voluntary and involved private landholders. The focus was largely on bat roosting and structures, including farmyards and old barns.

The group put bat houses on private land to provide roosts.

Range

The latest project, “Wild Nights”, is focused on wetlands, riparian areas and man-made waterbodies. These areas are important foraging ground for bats, especially the little brown myotis.

“They feed quite heavily on aquatic insects after they’ve hatched. And that’s how they are tied together with amphibians. The northern leopard frog uses these areas for breeding areas in the spring,” Eresman said.

“Wild Nights” will track the food structure of bats and frogs, and aim to determine the best habitat needed. It is a continuation of the previous bat project.

Landholders who choose to participate will be given a report card, but that’s just for information purposes. The report card will include all the species found and recorded during the survey.

The project also includes a brief site survey, which will examine plant characteristics, wetland classification and general health of the wetland.

Water quality will be sampled and that can help cow-calf producers determine whether to use that water source during a drought.

Landholders who participate can receive funding for enhancement projects.

If the site is determined to be important to the little brown myotis or the northern leopard frog, the watershed council will work with interested landholders to devise a project.

“It could be a fencing project or an alternate watering project, or maybe some vegetation planting to increase the vegetation biomass if they’re having problems with erosion or something like that,” Eresman said.

Interested landholders in the Milk River watershed should contact Eresman as soon as possible. He can be reached at tyler@mrwcc.ca or 403-647-4035.

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The largest North American hawk, with a wingspan up to 55 inches, it is classified as both at risk and endangered in Alberta.

“It’s been a while to come out, but it’s great to finally see it out in publications,” said Brad Downey, senior wildlife biologist with the Alberta Conservation Association, in reference to the plan.

The Alberta ferruginous hawk recovery plan was developed by the provincial government. The recovery team includes representatives from government, the Alberta Conservation Association, energy firm AltaLink and several other non-government organizations.

• PHOTOS: Endangered ferruginous hawks get a helping hand

The ferruginous hawk has a bright white front and red legs, and the grasslands in the southern part of the province are one of its major habitats on the Great Plains.

Landowners have already undertaken many of the activities identified in the recovery plan, said Downey. Twenty to 30 people have erected artificial nest platforms on their property that have proven valuable.

“It benefits the landholders. Landholders like their ferruginous hawks because they are a great control for Richardson’s ground squirrels. There is a huge population of ground squirrels out there right now.

“These birds can eat up to 500 ground squirrels in a single breeding season. Having a pair of them on your ranch is going to help with that natural means to control pests,” he said.

“They’ve taken the initiative because they want the birds on their land, which is great for an endangered species.”

Provincially, ferruginous hawks can be found from the southern Porcupine Hills and Eastern Slopes to the Saskatchewan border, and north to the Hanna and Consort region. Grasslands are their natural habitat and loss of those lands is a threat.

“They need the grasslands. They’re a bird of the open prairies, so that’s important,” said Downey.

The hawks are also affected by industrial disturbance, and Downey said the protection plan has mitigation and setback distance rules to prevent disruption of nests.

Electrocution and collision incidents are additional factors that industry is working to mitigate.

In the past, ferruginous hawks were hunted.

“There are still the odd ferruginous hawks that get shot,” Downey said. “That’s just unfortunate. I’m not sure why. Hopefully that doesn’t occur as much as it used to in the past.”

Nest availability is yet another challenge.

“We work with a lot of ranchers who have seen hawks trying to nest on a little willow, and the ranchers watch their nest blow down in the wind and all the eggs get destroyed.”

Ranchers can work with Multiple Species at Risk (MULTISAR) to get hawk poles erected on their property. Downey said in one case, a hawk pole was secured for a landholder and a ferruginous hawk produced five young that year.

“That’s how helpful those poles are. If you have a solid structure, they even have cameras on some of those poles that you can see at the Alberta Conservation Association website, just to monitor and see how well the nests are doing.

“We usually get three to four fledglings every year, which is good for an endangered species.”

In 2005-06, the ferruginous hawk population was an estimated 600 pairs.

“In the last survey in 2022, we found over 1,400 pairs, which is amazing. We’re well on our way to achieving our recovery goal. I think the species has a good chance of being recoverable,” said Downey.

A food source is vital, and the Prairies can supply it.

“Their population ties quite nicely with the ground squirrel population, so you know there are a lot of ground squirrels out right now. Their population can rebound quite nicely if they are provided secure nest sites and their nests don’t fall over and collapse and stuff like that.”

Ground squirrel populations go in cycles and is currently high.

“A female ground squirrel can have six to eight young. In the right conditions, their colony can multiply exponentially, quite quickly. Dryness can sure help with that and move that along.”

Downey said the impact of the recovery plan is important, especially with industrial developments underway throughout the province.

“I’m happy to see that the government has these plans in place to help protect species like ferruginous hawk. It’s quite nice to have and to see this come out officially.”

The recovery plan also allows for extra protection of nests.

“If there’s a hawk nest in 2024, and the hawk doesn’t come back in 2025, the nest is still protected. It’s still an active nest. In 2025, the second year, that nest is still protected until June 10, at which time it becomes inactive. Basically, it acknowledges that ferruginous hawks can come back year after year. They might miss a year, but there’s still an area for them to nest at.”

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Now, reporting in Environmental Science & Technology Letters, researchers have developed a method that detects infectious bird flu virus in wetlands frequented by waterfowl.

Wild birds are a significant reservoir of avian influenza virus. While some viral strains don’t cause disease, the highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) form can spread quickly and is often fatal. It spreads from wild birds that shed the pathogen through their feces into the environment, including the wetlands they inhabit.

Detecting bird flu in these waters has been challenging because infectious virus concentrations are often too low to be detected by most methods, leaving a significant gap in our understanding of viral transmission.

To address this problem, Laura Hubbard at the U.S. Geological Survey and colleagues devised a multi-step process to concentrate and identify infectious virus in environmental samples.

They tested their protocols on surface water samples taken twice in the spring of 2022 from four wetlands and a lake in Iowa. The team identified strains of infectious virus in samples from all four wetland sites in April, but not from the lake.

Detection rates were significantly lower, however, when they tested the water samples for viral RNA (11.1 per cent) using standard diagnostic protocols than when the same samples were inoculated into eggs and avian influenza virus was isolated and confirmed (66.7 per cent).

The researchers say these results highlight the need for improved RNA detection techniques to reduce the risk of false negatives.

Sequencing showed that most of the detected viral strains in water samples had low pathogenicity. One sample included HPAI, however, marking the first time this strain has been detected in a U.S. waterway, the researchers say.

Just five weeks later, they did not detect avian influenza virus in any samples from the same sites despite previous research that demonstrated viral persistence for months in similar environments.

The researchers suggest that the apparent absence of virus could be due to many environmental factors, including fewer waterfowl being present in May and substantially warmer water temperatures influencing virus survival.

Although further research is required to better understand the persistence and potential transmissibility of bird flu in wetlands, researchers say the detection of HPAI virus and other strains highlights possible risks to wild and domestic fowl, other animals and even humans, who use these waterways recreationally.

They also suggest that regular monitoring and early detection could help mitigate costly viral transmission and the rising cost of eggs and poultry.

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The province each year since 1997 has asked hunters to submit heads from harvested deer, moose and elk to test for CWD. It announced Sept. 26 it has opened its CWD testing drop-off locations for this year, until Jan. 21, 2024.

“We rely on hunters submitting samples for testing so we can continue to measure and manage CWD, and we are grateful to their ongoing support in those efforts,” Environment Minister Christine Tell said in a release.

Samples can be submitted from animals harvested anywhere in the province, but the ministry said its CWD focus this year is on seven specific wildlife management zones: 2W, 9 and 10 in the province’s southwest; 47 and 55 in the northwest; 50, east of Prince Albert; and 37, which runs from around Yorkton, Melville and Kamsack east to the Manitoba border.

But in response to the bovine TB findings this year in a cattle herd in the east-central region, the ministry this year also wants to test heads from harvested elk, moose, white-tailed deer and mule deer from WMZ 37, as well as WMZ 48 (north of 37), using the same process as for submitting CWD samples.

While CWD is established in much of southern Saskatchewan and has been detected in wildlife in 60 of the province’s 83 WMZs, no case of bovine TB has yet been detected in Saskatchewan wildlife, the province said Sept. 26.

While CWD results will be posted online, hunters will be notified directly if a positive bovine TB result is detected in their submitted sample, the province said. Testing for both diseases is free and voluntary, the province added.

An animal infected with bovine TB may have lesions, of any size, that can be seen during field dressing, the province said.

The lesions may appear as round, white, tan or yellow, crumbly to paste-like, and gritty nodules throughout the lungs, the rib cage or in the chest cavity.

It’s possible, albeit extremely rare, for bovine TB to spread from animals to people, the province said, advising hunters to take “routine hygiene precautions” while field dressing or otherwise handling wildlife.

Tracing in/out

As for the Canadian Food Inspection Agency’s ongoing investigation and tracing of the TB-infected cattle herd, tests so far have found the disease’s spread to be limited to the one herd.

As of Wednesday, CFIA said, the infected herd has so far turned up 10 confirmed cases of bovine TB. The herd has been depopulated, its post-mortem inspections complete, and lab tests “ongoing” on tissue samples.

Past that, CFIA’s investigation has so far led it to two “trace-in” herds, three “trace-out” herds, one contact herd and one “life line” herd, but no new TB cases as of Wednesday.

A “life line” herd refers to any herd that was specifically traced from an infected animal in the infected herd. In this investigation, CFIA said, the one life line herd has been released from federal quarantine, based on negative results so far from lab tests. That said, final confirmatory lab tissue tests are “ongoing.”

A “contact” herd, meanwhile, refers to a herd that shared a fence line or “may have co-mingled” with the infected herd. Live animal testing has started on that herd and will continue through this fall, CFIA said.

“Trace-in” refers to a herd that provided animals to the infected herd. Of the two found so far in this investigation, live animal testing has been completed on one, while the other will undergo live animal testing “after summer grazing ends.”

“Trace-out” refers to a herd that received animals from the infected herd. Of the three found so far, one was released from quarantine based on negative results to date. The other two still require live animal testing — which, CFIA reiterated, is normally completed after summer grazing ends.

The infected Saskatchewan herd had come to CFIA’s attention after an animal shipped from that herd to a U.S. feedlot in September 2022 was confirmed last February as positive for the disease, based on a PCR test run by the U.S. Department of Agriculture on tissue samples collected at slaughter. — Glacier FarmMedia Network

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In 2021, scientists revealed that 40 per cent of white-tailed deer sampled in Michigan, Pennsylvania, Illinois and New York state in the U.S. had antibodies for the virus.

Surveillance of these deer continues, and a new study by researchers at Ohio State University found that the virus is still spreading among the animals and back to humans, and it is evolving rapidly.

The researchers looked at the prevalence of the virus in a small sample of white-tailed deer in northeastern Ohio. The samples were taken between November 2021 and March 2022.

From 1,522 nasal swabs, 163 tested positive for alpha and delta variants of COVID-19. The researchers also found the virus had bounced many times back and forth between humans and deer.

Coronaviruses are covered in spikes, and it is these spikes that latch onto our cells to gain entry and begin replicating. The particular part of our cells that the spikes latch to is called the ACE2 receptor. This receptor is similar in deer and humans, and coronaviruses have lost little time in exploiting this.

Human contact with deer is common in parts of the U.S. and Canada, where many millions of white-tailed deer live as wild, urbanized or farmed animals. In these habitats, deer may be exposed to human waste. They can carry bacteria with similar antimicrobial resistance patterns to local humans.

The Ohio researchers found that COVID-19 multiplied and spread in deer over several months, causing no obvious illness or deaths in the animals. Migrating deer, males in particular, spread the virus as they moved across the landscape.

It is not known if other potential hosts (such as skunks, squirrels or rodents) contracted the virus too, but spread from deer back to humans was seen. How this exchange happened is unclear.

Deer sampled on Staten Island, New York, over the same period showed evidence of spillover infection from humans by another COVID-19 variant, omicron.

By measuring changes in the COVID-19 genomes in the deer, through use of a new statistical method, the researchers in Ohio estimated that the rate of viral mutation was three times greater than in humans.

The types of genetic changes were not the same as those in human COVID-19. The mutations appeared to be adaptive responses that might have increased viral spread in its new deer hosts.

The pathogen showed early increases in its diversity in humans, too, which was perhaps more rapid in the first years after 2019.

Crucially, the viral spillover from deer to humans has not caused new human outbreaks that are making doctors lose sleep. Evolutionary changes in COVID-19 in deer populations have not resulted in a virus that can evade our antibodies, so there is no current public health risk linked to this increased mutation rate.

As with humans, some deer are “super-spreaders.” Social network analysis shows this process in the animals’ use of scraping sites, where males leave their scents to set up breeding groups. Human-made feeding or bait stations (for hunting) exacerbate the rate of viral spread, too.

White-tailed deer could be referred to as a new reservoir of COVID viruses. Animal reservoirs encompass a continuous process of viral division and change.

Hosts impose selective pressures on viruses that influence the rate at which a virus’s genome changes. For example, influenza A evolves more rapidly in populations of birds or pigs than in people.

Probably, the lifespan of an infected animal, metabolic processes within its cells, immune actions, damage to viral RNA from host enzymes or other pathogens all force viral mutation. Whatever the reasons, these observations from Ohio raise the possibility that COVID viruses might develop into a new strain or variant capable of spreading significant illness to humans within those millions of North American white-tailed deer.

Blood tests of U.K. deer in 2020-21, in contrast, found no evidence of COVID-19.

This could be because British deer species have distinctive ecological niches and COVID susceptibilities.

It is clear that ongoing surveillance provides valuable intelligence.

– This article was originally published at the Manitoba Co-operator.

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