B.C. wildlife group calls for Kootenay deer cull following 3rd case of chronic wasting disease

The B.C. Wildlife Federation is calling for the province to "aggressively reduce" urban deer populations through a cull in the Kootenay region.

The call comes in response to the B.C. government announcing that chronic wasting disease (CWD) has been confirmed in yet another deer near Cranbrook, B.C.

It is the third confirmed case of the fatal disease in B.C., following the discovery of two cases — the first ever found in B.C. — that were confirmed earlier this year.

Nicknamed zombie deer disease, CWD is an incurable illness that affects cervid, or deer family members, such as moose, caribou and elk, and has been spreading rapidly through Western Canada.

The latest B.C. case was found in a white-tailed deer, the province says, from a sample collected in Oct. 2024. It was found within two kilometres of another infected white-tailed deer, which was killed by a vehicle. The other confirmed case was from a male mule deer harvested by a hunter.

In a statement, Jesse Zenman of the B.C. Wildlife Federation placed the blame squarely on the proliferation of deer in urban areas, calling them a "significant vector" for the spread of CWD due to the deer being in contact with each other "all the time."

"Urban deer populations in towns like Kimberley, Cranbrook and Creston need to be dramatically reduced immediately, and the province needs a dedicated funding mechanism to ensure that we can adequately address this problem," he said in the statement, saying a cull was needed.

In an interview with CBC News, Zenman said while there is often vocal opposition to the idea of deer culls, the current strategy is resulting in deer being managed "by people's bumpers" as populations proliferate.

"That's not humane," he said, adding aggressive deer have also been responsible for killing pets and damaging property.

He also called for additional funding to sample and test for cases of CWD.

Rapid spread

Fourteen years ago, chronic wasting disease was rare in the province's deer populations, showing up in a small percentage of animals in a handful of locations, mostly along the Saskatchewan border.

Today, some of those areas are seeing 50 to 85 per cent of mule deer infected, and it has spread: the first case of CWD in Manitoba was found in a mule deer in late 2021, and then in white-tailed deer for the first time in the same province in 2023.

In May 2023, a provincial survey in Alberta found it was present in 23 per cent of samples collected during the 2022-23 hunting season.

In response, the B.C. government established a surveillance program for the disease in an effort to reduce the risk of spread, which discovered the first two cases in B.C.'s Kootenays this past winter.

In the time since, the province has been enhancing measures to try to stop the spread of CWD, including enhanced hunting regulations and management plans for deer in the area.

Here is more information about the disease:

What is chronic wasting disease?

Chronic wasting disease is a fatal infection caused by an abnormal protein called a prion.

Prion diseases are a family of rare neurodegenerative disorders that can be found in both humans and animals, impairing brain function.

Perhaps the best-known example is bovine spongiform encephalopathy, commonly referred to as mad cow disease.

Where was it found?

To date, chronic wasting disease has primarily been found in deer and elk populations in Saskatchewan and Alberta, and more recently in a wild deer in Manitoba, as well as a farmed red deer in Quebec, according to the Canadian Food Inspection Agency.

In B.C., two positive cases were both found south of Cranbrook, B.C., located about 84 kilometres west of the border with Alberta, in January 2024. The first was from an adult male mule deer, and the second was from an adult female white-tail deer, with the diagnoses confirmed on Jan. 31 by the Canadian Food Inspection Agency.

Can it impact humans?

B.C.'s Ministry of Water, Land and Resource Stewardship says there is no direct evidence that the disease can spread to humans, nor have there been any instances of it being found in humans. 

"However, to prevent any potential risk of transmission or illness, Health Canada and the World Health Organization recommend people not eat meat or other parts of an animal infected with chronic wasting disease," the ministry said in a statement.

What comes next?

The province is working with local leaders, hunters and First Nations to come up with an active management plan. In July, it announced enhanced regulations for deer in the Kootenay region and created a chronic wasting disease management zone, which applies to 14 of the 225 wildlife management units run by the province to track game.

How can it be reported?

People living in the Cranbrook region should avoid activities including feeding deer or handling carcasses.

Symptoms of chronic wasting disease include weight loss, drooling, poor co-ordination, stumbling or unexplained sickly behaviour.

Anyone who sees an antlered animal with these symptoms is asked to report it to the conservation officer service at 1-877-952-7277.

More information can be found at gov.bc.ca/chronicwastingdisease.