Nearly 100 white-tailed deer have been found dead in the past week in the Grand Forks area of B.C., as government testing has confirmed the presence of epizootic hemorrahgic disease.
The announcement comes the same day the the province shared its plan to stem the spread of another illness among deer — chronic wasting disease — in southeastern B.C.
Epizootic hemorrahgic disease is infectious and fatal to white-tailed deer, mule deer and bighorn sheep, the government says, but is also part of a natural cycle. It is spread by small flies, called midges, and typically requires warmer weather present in late summer and early fall.
“The outbreak is expected to end when the weather becomes cool and wet, or there is a hard frost,” the Ministry of Water, Land and Resource Stewardship said in a release.
While there is no evidence the disease can spread to humans, people are advised not to eat the meat of animals who have been infected.
The disease has previously killed a large number of California bighorn sheep in the region, about 340 kilometres east of Vancouver near the U.S. border, in 2021.
Chronic wasting disease
Meanwhile, the province is introducing an expanded hunting season for white-tailed deer near Cranbrook, B.C., as part of its effort to reduce the spread of chronic wasting disease.
The Ministry of Water, Land and Resource Stewardship says the hunt will be active from Jan. 5 to Jan. 31 next year.
Hunters in the Cranbrook area will be allowed to harvest one additional deer above the normal limit of two.
The ministry says the hunt is expected to lower the density of the deer population in the area, which will decrease opportunities for the fatal disease to spread.
Six cases of the disease have been found so far, and the government says the Cranbrook area has been at the centre of “a cluster” of chronic wasting disease cases that are threatening the local deer and elk populations.
The disease was discovered in B.C. for the first time last year, prompting a targeted cull of urban deer herds near Cranbrook and Kimberley in February.
The hunt in January will be open to all licensed hunters in B.C. and covers both antlered and antlerless mule and white-tailed deer.
“Currently, it is estimated that fewer than one per cent of deer in the Cranbrook area are infected with (the disease),” the ministry statement says. “This targeted, time-restricted hunt is one of the ways the province is keeping disease prevalence low and reducing the risk of chronic wasting disease entering or spreading within B.C. wildlife populations.”
Chronic wasting disease is 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. When found in deer and other cervids, it slowly kills the animals as they lose their ability to function.