The U.S. Department of Agriculture reported infections of SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, in wild white-tailed deer in the state of Ohio, according to a statement. There were no reports of deer showing symptoms of infection, USDA said.

“We do not know how the deer were exposed to SARS-CoV-2,” USDA spokeswoman Lyndsay Cole wrote in an e-mail to Reuters. “It’s possible they were exposed through people, the environment, other deer, or another animal species.”

USDA has previously reported COVID-19 in animals including dogs, cats, tigers, lions, snow leopards, otters, gorillas and minks.

Worldwide, most animal infections were reported in species that had close contact with a person with COVID-19, according to the agency.

USDA reported last month that white-tailed deer populations in Illinois, Michigan, New York and Pennsylvania were exposed to SARS-CoV-2, based on a study that analyzed serum samples from free-ranging deer for antibodies to the disease.

The Ohio State University College of Veterinary Medicine collected samples from the infected deer in Ohio from January to March as part of ongoing studies, USDA said.

The samples were presumed to be positive for COVID-19 in university tests, and the cases were confirmed at USDA’s National Veterinary Services Laboratories, according to the statement.

— Reporting for Reuters by Tom Polansek in Chicago.

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The province said Thursday it has amended regulations under its Fish and Wildlife Conservation Act that will ban anyone from importing live, captive cervids into Ontario “with some exceptions.”

Any of those exceptions will need a permit from the provincial natural resources and forestry ministry (MNRF). To get that, the cervids must have “fully certified status” from a CWD herd certification program and may only be imported from jurisdictions free from CWD during the six-year period up to the date they’re moved.

Imported cervids must either be headed for slaughter, in transit through the province in a sealed vehicle, or en route to a captive herd facility that meets biosecurity rules.

The new rules also prohibit people from moving live cervids from one part of Ontario to another — again, with “some exceptions,” such as for slaughter, export or veterinary care, or for livestock shows where the cervids have no contact with other animals. Otherwise, the animals being moved will need an MNRF permit.

The rules announced Thursday also expand the province’s ban on the use or possession of lures, scents or attractants made from cervid parts such as urine, feces, blood or gland oils. The new amendments will ban those products for “any purpose,” not just hunting.

The rules also expand the province’s ban on import of “high-risk” parts of cervids that were hunted in other jurisdictions.

People may only bring in “butchered, deboned and packaged” meat, finished taxidermy mounts, tanned hides and skull plates and antlers from which all tissue has been removed — and in those cases, only from animals that haven’t tested positive for CWD. Anyone who later learns his or her cervid products came from a CWD-positive animal must notify the MNRF and dispose of the products accordingly.

The amendments were filed Wednesday, following public consultations than ran from mid-July through August. All the new rules come into effect Jan. 1, 2021.

CWD is one of the transmissible spongiform encephalopathy (TSE) family of fatal nervous system diseases such as BSE in cattle, scrapie in sheep and Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease in people. The disease is federally reportable in Canada, meaning any and all suspected cases must be reported to the Canadian Food Inspection Agency.

In Canada, CWD has been found mainly in deer and elk populations — both wild and farmed — in Saskatchewan and Alberta, along with “sporadic” confirmed cases in wild moose, according to CFIA. CWD in 2018 also turned up in a farmed herd of red deer in Quebec’s Laurentides region.

“While it has not been detected in Ontario, it is important to remain vigilant,” the Ontario government said Thursday, noting the infected Quebec herd was near the Ontario border and CWD has also been found in all five U.S. states that border Ontario.

Evidence suggests the infectious abnormally-folded proteins, or prions, that cause CWD can pass between cervids by direct contact or through contaminated feed, soil, and/or water sources with saliva, urine and/or feces from infected animals.

No evidence has yet shown CWD can affect humans, but the World Health Organization and other such bodies recommend against eating meat or consuming any products from animals known to be infected with TSEs.

Conservation officials in neighbouring Manitoba have also urged hunters not to shoot animals that look sick. If a hunter shoots a deer or elk that appears unhealthy and/or extremely thin, its carcass should not be field dressed. — Glacier FarmMedia Network

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The province on Wednesday announced a mandatory sampling program, in which hunters must submit heads from mule deer and white-tailed deer harvested in wildlife management units 4-1, 4-2, 4-3, 4-4, 4-5, 4-6 and 4-7 along the province’s southern border, in the Kootenay region.

The requirement is in place for deer harvested in those WMUs between Sept. 1 and Nov. 30 this year. Heads must be deposited within one week of harvest at one of the freezers listed on the B.C. government’s CWD web page or at any B.C. Wildlife or Conservation Service office during business hours.

B.C. imposed the new mandatory sampling program after the confirmation in June of nine white-tailed deer with CWD at Libby, Montana, about 125 km southeast of Creston, B.C.

The discovery by Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks officials marks the first time CWD has been detected west of the Rocky Mountains, B.C. government officials said in a release Wednesday.

“The discovery raises concerns about infected deer making their way into B.C., as Libby is within the range of deer movements between B.C. and Montana,” the province said.

The province, which has yet to find a case of CWD, has been monitoring for it since 2002 — particularly in its Peace and East Kootenay regions, due to the disease’s presence in both Alberta and Montana.

Over 3,900 cervids have been tested in B.C. for CWD since 2002, the province said, but sample numbers in recent years “have not consistently provided confidence in disease absence in the province.”

More sampling is needed to confirm the province’s CWD-free status and “inform any additional response,” the province said Wednesday.

Along with the mandatory sampling program the provincial Wildlife Health Program is urging hunters in other parts of the province — especially the Peace region — to bring deer, moose and elk heads to drop-off locations for testing.

In Saskatchewan, where the disease showed up in game farm animals in 1996 and is now found in deer, elk and moose in 48 of its 83 wildlife management zones, the province is also calling for more samples this fall from five specific WMZs.

The province on Tuesday said hunters who harvest mule deer and white-tailed deer in zones 9 and 10 (between Swift Current, Leader and Maple Creek) and 2W (south of Shaunavon) in the province’s far southwest, and zones 35 (between Moosomin and Esterhazy) and 37 (east of Yorkton, Melville and Canora) along the Manitoba boundary, are “strongly urged” to submit heads for testing.

Saskatchewan’s environment ministry said it hopes to collect at least 300 samples from each targeted zone “to more accurately assess changes in the disease and help guide future management options.”

CWD is a member of the transmissible spongiform encephalopathy (TSE) family of diseases such as BSE in cattle, scrapie in sheep and Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease in people.

Evidence suggests CWD prions can pass from animal to animal by direct contact or through contaminated feed, soil, and/or water sources with saliva, urine and/or feces from infected animals.

No evidence has yet shown CWD can affect humans, but the World Health Organization and other such bodies recommend against eating meat or consuming any products from animals known to be infected with any TSE disease.

CWD-infected deer and elk show abnormal behaviour accompanied by progressive weight loss. In later stages, animals with CWD show signs of extreme weight loss, repetitive behaviour, drowsiness, lack of co-ordination, drooping head and ears, drooling and increased drinking and urination. — Glacier FarmMedia Network

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The provincial government recently opened a public comment period, running until Jan. 19, on a list of changes it proposes to make to various hunting and trapping regulations between April this year and the end of March 2020.

Among the proposed new rules is a ban on “any part or derivative of a deer, elk, moose or caribou, sourced from outside B.C., to be used for the purpose of hunting or trapping.”

CWD is a member of the transmissible spongiform encephalopathy (TSE) family of diseases such as BSE in cattle, scrapie in sheep and Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease in people.

B.C.’s Wildlife Health Program has monitored for CWD since 2002 and has yet to find an infected animal in the province, the government said, noting CWD has been seen in Alberta and Saskatchewan and is known to be “moving west toward the B.C. border.”

The infectious abnormally-folded proteins, or prions, that cause CWD are present in tissues and “biological materials” from infected cervids, particularly in body fluids such as urine, the B.C. government said in a proposal document.

Urine and other such materials are used to make attractants for use by hunters, and are “frequently” collected from farmed cervids in jurisdictions outside the province, the government said.

The impact of CWD on native cervid populations and the disease’s spread have already led “several” jurisdictions elsewhere to set up bans on such products containing biological material from cervids.

“There is little regulation in the production of these materials, they are usually available without labelled information on their origin and cervid farms in two Canadian provinces and 21 U.S. states are known to be or have been infected by CWD,” the provincial government said.

The province described such attractants as “a potential route of introducing CWD to new jurisdictions, including B.C.”

Evidence suggests CWD prions can pass from animal to animal by direct contact or through contaminated feed, soil, and/or water sources with saliva, urine and/or feces from infected animals.

No evidence has yet shown CWD can affect humans, but the World Health Organization and other such bodies recommend against eating meat or consuming any products from animals known to be infected with any TSE disease.

CWD-infected deer and elk show abnormal behaviour accompanied by progressive weight loss. In later stages, animals with CWD show signs of extreme weight loss, repetitive behaviour, drowsiness, lack of co-ordination, drooping head and ears, drooling and increased drinking and urination.

Conservation officials in Manitoba — another province which has yet to turn up any cases of CWD — urge hunters not to shoot animals that appear to be sick. If a hunter does shoot a deer or elk that appears unhealthy and/or extremely thin, its carcass should not be field dressed. — AGCanada.com Network

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One of the transmissible spongiform encephalopathy (TSE) family of nervous system diseases, such as BSE in cattle and scrapie in sheep, CWD has turned up in 10 elk and deer herds in Saskatchewan and three elk herds in Alberta since the beginning of 2015 alone.

Efforts to eradicate CWD in Canada’s farmed cervids “have not been successful,” the Canadian Food Inspection Agency said Friday, describing disease management as “a shared responsibility.”

Thus, the agency said Friday, it’s rethinking the eradication policy it’s had in place since 2000, to instead “reduce the risk of the disease spreading by encouraging producers to adopt strong risk mitigation measures.”

Starting Dec. 31 this year, before a producer can get a CFIA response — which includes quarantine, herd depopulation and compensation — he or she will have to be enrolled in a voluntary herd certification program (VHCP), CFIA said Friday.

A VHCP requires enrolled producers to set up specific biosecurity measures and to comply with limits on what animals may be added to a herd, as well as ongoing surveillance testing of mature deadstock.

National standards have been in place since 2002 for VHCPs, which in Canada are overseen by third-party administrators under CFIA oversight. Those standards are being updated, the agency said, following consultations with the industry in 2015 and 2016.

A “transition period” will run throughout 2018 to give producers time to enroll in and complete 12 months in a VHCP, CFIA said Friday.

During 2018, cervid ranchers should contact the regional administrator of the VHCP available in their area and consider enrolling in a program, CFIA said.

From Jan. 1, 2019 on, CFIA’s response will only apply if the affected producer has been VHCP-compliant for at least 12 months, the agency said Friday.

According to the North American Elk Breeders Association in a separate statement Friday, any CWD-positive farms not in a VHCP under the new system would have “no movement restrictions or depopulation orders” but would not be eligible for any compensation either.

CWD-affected farms not in a program would have to manage the disease using a test-and-cull approach, the association said.

Found so far only in captive and wild cervids in North America, Korea and Norway, CWD was first seen in Canada on a Saskatchewan elk farm in 1996 and has since been “routinely” detected in Saskatchewan, with a few cases in Alberta, CFIA said.

All cervids slaughtered in abattoirs in Saskatchewan, Alberta, Manitoba and Yukon are required by law to be tested for CWD. Only carcasses that test negative are used for meat in those jurisdictions.

A federally reportable disease in Canada, CWD is known to only naturally affect members of the cervid family, with no direct evidence yet to suggest it could be transmitted to people or other species.

It’s still recommended, though, that people not use or consume any tissues that may have come from a known CWD-infected animal. — AGCanada.com Network

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