The Saskatchewan government wants 300 animal samples to track a fatal disease affecting some of the province's wildlife.
The government is creating chronic wasting disease (CWD) testing areas in seven wildlife management zones to collect the samples. The areas include one surrounding Meadow Lake, one west of Nipawin, one south and two west of Swift Current, and two southwest of Yorkton.
"By targeting them, we're trying to focus our efforts on those areas to gain a better understanding of the disease," said Richard Espie, a wildlife health specialist with the environment ministry.
The province is asking for samples of mule deer and whitetail deer in the highlighted areas, but hunters can continue to submit samples from elsewhere.
CWD is a fatal disease affecting the nervous system of animals like deer, moose, elk and caribou. An animal can appear normal for years before symptoms like weight loss and poor co-ordination take effect and it dies.
Recorded cases of CWD have also bumped up recently, though that's likely due to improved sample collection. In 2018, there were 328 positive cases out of 2,000 samples; last year, there were 528 positive cases out of 3,299 samples.
The disease is most concentrated among southern mule deer in the province.
Collecting more data on those issues "could be a whole host of different things," Espie said.
If officials choose to change the management of wildlife in those areas, they'll have more information to ground those decisions. The options range from controlling the flow of hunting to managing carcass disposal.
Since the first deer with CWD were found in 2000, "it's taken us 20 years to get this point," Espie said, adding it will take a significant amount of time to learn more and to manage the disease in the province.
"These zones are going to be part and parcel of monitoring our ability to manage it and how well we're doing."
