With hunting season just around the corner, being aware of Chronic Wasting Disease (CWD) and the effects it has on deer, elk, and moose is important for outdoorspeople.
Lake Country is hosting an information session for Okanagan hunters to learn about CWD and to identify tonsils, lymph nodes, organs, and spinal tissue, and receive instruction on removing and packaging tissue samples for submission to the provincial testing program.
While CWD is not known to affect humans, it is 100 per cent fatal in cervids. CWD has been detected in deer in the Kootenays, mainly around Cranbrook and Kimberley.
New surveillance and sampling regimes to help track and control the spread of the disease are being implemented by the provincial government, which means even experienced hunters may have to learn new skills in order to comply.
B.C. Wildlife Federation Region 8 President Nick Kozub said he has known hunters who have quit hunting inside the CWD zone in the Kootenays because of the rule, âthat you have to leave the spine and debone in the field.â
âHunters are essential to surveillance, so we really need them to hunt those areas. Outside of the management zone, just the head or specific tissues are required for testing, but you need to know what to look for,â he said.
Hunters who harvest an animal outside the management zone are being asked to submit samples for testing voluntarily, which means removing the head intact or removing the lower jaw with tonsils and/or lymph nodes, depending on the species.
The Okanagan is a voluntary submission zone, but there is an incentive program in place to encourage hunters to submit samples. Drop-off freezers are located throughout B.C.
âIf you can take the tonsils and lymph nodes out, you donât have to haul the head out, which lightens the load,â said Kozub. âWe hope to have enough heads at the demo that people will get a chance to try it themselves before they are in the field.â
The information session will be led by B.C.âs CWD program director, Kirsten Falck, and includes a question-and-answer period with the Conservation Officer Service.
The information session takes place:
Saturday, July 26 at 9:30 a.m.
Oceola Fish and Game Club
11888 McGowan Rd.
Lake Country
For information, contact:
Nick Kozub RP8@BCWF.BC.CA
Jodi McKay DIRECTOR2@BCWF.BC.CA
