CWD – Background

• Affects species in the deer family (cervids) -mainly deer
• Prion disease – caused by abnormal misfolded protein
• Difficult to detect, contain and manage
• Long-term population declines
• Threatens wildlife conservation, hunting practices, food security, wildlife wildlife-related economies

CWD – B.C. Situation

• CWD has been detected in B.C.
• Risk level has increased dramatically in recent years
• Prevention is the top priority
   Increase awareness
   Reduce risks
   Detect the disease as soon as possible
•  B.C. CWD Plan = Prevention, Surveillance and Response
• Working with partners and experts to develop the best plan

CWD – Prevention

•  Increase awareness of risky activities:
   Import of carcasses/contaminated material
   Handling and disposal
   Baiting / feeding of cervids
• Regulations:
   No native cervid farming
   Ban on import of live cervids / carcasses
   Ban on use of cervid products

CWD – Proposed Regulatory Changes

• Prohibit possession of all cervid parts originating outside B.C.
• With the exception of:
   De -boned meat
   Cleaned hide, antlers, skull plate with all tissue removed
• Limits material disposed, entering environment
• Changes would be effective for 2022 season
• Impacts hunter, vendors – we need your input

CWD SURVEILLANCE

Samples:
• Deer, Elk, Moose – over 1 year of age
• Encouraged but voluntary in most areas
• Mandatory (deer only) in high risk area
• Please remove antlers
 Remove at base or skull plate
 Submit lower jaw (deer only)
• All supplies at freezer / drop drop-off location
• Instructions / freezer locations / test results:  www.gov.bc.ca/chronicwastingdisease

All hunting licence holders who harvest a white tailed deer or mule deer, under the authority of a species licence, in Management Units 4-1, 4-2, 4-3, 4-4, 4-5, 4-6, 4-7 and 4-23, must submit the head for CWD testing.

New Mandatory Zone – New Hunting Licence Condition:

• Resident and non non-resident licences
• Both deer species
• Mandatory submission for testing
• Consistent with AHA General Order in 2019 and 2020

Import of potentially infected cervids or cervid parts from CWD affected areas.

• There has been an increase in the number of B.C. hunters returning with CWD positive meat harvested in areas affected with the disease. B.C. regulations prohibit the import of high risk tissues (brain, spinal cord, organs, lymph nodes) into the province and require hunters to process the animals before returning to B.C. and returning with only the meat (de-boned).
• Reports to the B.C. Wildlife Health Program however, indicate that carcasses continue to be unlawfully transported into the province and dumped in the environment.
• The resiliency of prions and the potential transmission pathways of CWD complicate management of the disease. An infected animal will shed prions through saliva, urine, feces and infected carcasses. Prions will persist in the environment for several years, possibly decades.  (Read that again!  Don’t be that hunter!) 
• The disease is transmitted through direct contact between animals as well as contact with contaminated environments and shared resources. Prions are extremely resistant to heat or any practical decontamination method, and are essentially impossible to remove once they have been introduced into an environment. Contaminated environments can be a source of infection to healthy animals in the absence of any sick animals.