Wildlife concerns

Incoming president Arvid Nottveit said wildlife pressures have become a dominant issue for producers across the province.

“The elk population just really exploded, and we have to work with producers to mitigate the effects of that,” he said.

A provincial report from back in 2011 put Manitoba’s elk population as stable around 6,500 animals.

The 2023 big game survey, meanwhile, estimated elk numbers around Manitoba’s Porcupine Mountains, Duck Mountains and Turtle Moutains. The survey reported a minimum 107 in the Porcupine Moutain surveyed region, 625 in the southwestern region around the Turtle Mountains and 1,158 in the Duck Mountains.

That survey covered only patches of the province, however, and did not include major elk region Riding Mountain National Park. The Government of Canada estimates about 1,800 elk in the national park.

WHY IT MATTERS: Manitoba beef producers are pushing for real fixes on elk, predation and Crown lands while bracing for trade uncertainty and tighter margins behind today’s strong cattle prices.

Predation from wolves and bears is another hot button issue. Wild boars are also becoming more of a problem as their populations continue to grow in Manitoba, Nottveit added.

Last April, the federal and provincial governments launched the Livestock Predation Prevention Program, a permanent successor to the industry-led pilot project that ended in 2023.

Resolutions approved by delegates at MBP’s annual general meeting, held in Brandon on Feb. 11 and 12, include continued lobbying for provincial analysis of elk and deer populations, financial assistance for fencing and compensation for wildlife damage to crops.

Producers are also increasingly concerned about feed losses and herd health impacts tied to wildlife.

Wildlife and disease concerns intersect with broader traceability discussions that have surfaced in recent months. It is important that producers facing disease outbreaks are supported appropriately, Nottveit said.

“I really want to make sure that ranchers that have disease outbreaks on their herds are treated fairly and … it’s as stress-free a situation as can possibly be.”

Past president Matthew Atkinson said wildlife damage, particularly from elk, has also been a major file during his six years on the board.

“Wildlife issues have really dominated, both in terms of the predation on livestock as well as impact on crops, from largely elk, but from wildlife in general,” he said.

Crown lands unsettled

Alongside wildlife advocacy, MBP continues to push for long-term stability on Crown lands.

“We need a long-term, stable plan going forward,” Atkinson said. “We need that to be settled and consistent.”

He acknowledged the file has created divisions within the membership.

“It’s either a major priority or it’s no priority at all,” he said.

Last October, the province extended its rental rate freeze on Crown land forage leases into the 2026 growing season.

Trade uncertainty

Trade uncertainty and the upcoming CUSMA review with the United States and Mexico remain on the radar, though provincial influence is limited.

“It’s a hard thing to negotiate our way through,” Atkinson said. “It’s not a typical negotiation.”

Nottveit highlighted the critical need to sustain robust cross-border cattle movement, given the close integration between the Canadian and U.S. beef industries.

Strong prices, tight margins

Despite high cattle prices, both leaders cautioned that rising input costs continue to squeeze margins.

Atkinson called the current market strength “overdue,” but said producers must use the opportunity wisely.

“It’s time that we start looking at … the tools available to us to make them as profitable as we can and to ensure that we can be profitable when things aren’t at their highs and move ahead from there,” he said.

For Nottveit, the focus in the coming years will be on practical supports that help grow Manitoba’s cow herd, which sits at historic lows.

“There’s a lot of work that can be done still, to make it viable for young people, especially to make a living raising cattle in this beautiful province,” he said.

Note: A previous version of this story mistakenly reported Manitoba’s estimated elk population at 605. The Co-operator regrets the error.

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WHY IT MATTERS : Chronic wasting disease (CWD) is a fatal prion disease that targets cervid species like deer, elk and moose. It was first confirmed in Manitoba in 2021. It is not considered a health risk to humans.

The cases were announced by the Province of Manitoba Dec. 22. Infected animals from the two new areas were killed in the RM of Swan Valley West, north of Duck Mountain National Park, and RM of Victoria southeast of Carberry.

Three other cases of chronic wasting disease were found in regions where cases had previously been detected. Two new cases were found near Coulter in the RM of Two Borders. One was found near the community of Dropmore in the Parkland region.

The new cases bring Manitoba’s CWD count up to 35, 26 of which were mule deer, while the remaining nine were white-tailed deer. The five new cases included three mule deer and two white-tailed deer.

In recent years, Manitoba has expanded surveillance for the disease by testing hunted deer. In 2024-25, the program tested about 3,100 samples. The province says the 2025-2026 program has so far tested over 2,500 samples.

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WHY IT MATTERS: Manitoba has been working to control the deadly prion disease, which attacks deer species, including elk and moose, since it was confirmed in the province in 2021.

The tool gives hunters up-to-date information so they can decide where to hunt and how to handle their harvest, said Ian Bushie, Manitoba’s Natural Resources and Indigenous Futures Minister, in a press release Nov. 17.

The dashboard is the “first of its kind in Canada and showcases Manitoba’s commitment to leading the way in preventing the spread of CWD,” Bushie said.

“This tool, in partnership with hunters submitting biological samples and CWD testing, will help monitor and manage CWD in our province.”

The dashboard shows CWD test results on maps. Hunters can sort by season or by species. It also shows where hunters can drop off samples for testing.

Positive cases remain low, but monitoring continues

During the 2024-25 hunting season, the province tested 3,007 animals and found four positive cases, including three white-tailed deer and one mule deer, according to the province’s CWD Summary Report. That works out to a positive rate of 0.13 per cent. All four cases came from hunter-submitted samples.

The report also showed testing has gotten much faster. The program has struggled with backlogs, resulting in significant delays in past years. Now, the province says, results that took 77 days to come back in 2022-23 now take just 22 days, a 71 per cent improvement in responsiveness. Hunters who extract their own samples instead of dropping off whole heads have helped speed things up.

Since Manitoba found its first CWD case in 2021, hunters have been responsible for identifying 25 of the 30 total positive cases across the province. The disease has now been confirmed in six game hunting areas in western Manitoba. The government has set out a mandatory sampling zone for hunters.

The dashboard launch comes as the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) looks at shifting its approach to managing CWD in farmed cervids. The CFIA’s proposed changes would move away from mandatory herd destruction and toward managing the disease on a regional basis. Under the new approach, the CFIA would consider CWD to be established in Alberta and Saskatchewan, emerging in Manitoba, and not detected in the rest of Canada. The agency would not order the destruction of infected herds in those three provinces.

Disease spreads

The disease has spread steadily across Western Canada.

Alberta and Saskatchewan have been the traditional hot zone. In 2024-25 alone, Alberta’s surveillance program found 472 CWD cases in wild deer, while Saskatchewan found 386 (mule deer were the top infected species in both cases. The CFIA has found 93 cases of CWD in farmed deer or elk since 2011 (six so far in 2025), all but one of which have been in Alberta or Saskatchewan. The lone outlier, a red deer herd in Quebec, was found in 2018.

In Manitoba, concern about possible CWD spread emerged in the years leading up to the first official finding, as elk farmers and other producers started to note more mule deer moving into the province.

British Columbia found its first case in wild cervids in January 2024.

So far, CWD is not known to spread to humans, though there’s no direct evidence proving it can’t. Health officials take a cautious approach and recommend against eating meat from infected animals.

What hunters should do

Keeping CWD under control depends on hunters staying informed and getting their animals tested, Bushie said. Every sample that comes in helps track the disease and protects hunting for the next generation.

Hunters in areas where CWD has been found should get their harvest tested, handle carcasses carefully, and not eat any meat from animals that tested positive or haven’t been tested yet.

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The Canadian Food Inspection Agency is seeking feedback on proposed changes to the program, which is intended to improve risk management in farmed cervids and better meet the needs of partners, industry, stakeholders and consumers.

CFIA employees and the public can give their thoughts on the changes here. 

The proposed changes will move away from mandatory herd destruction and toward a regional, management-focused approach to control disease spread. The new proposed CWD control program will recognize regional variability in CWD status for the purposes of CWD risk management.

It will consider CWD to be established in a province or territory where CWD has been detected in wild or farmed cervids for two or more consecutive years. The CFIA will consider CWD to be emerging in a province or territory where CWD has been detected in some wild cervid populations for two or more consecutive years, but not in farmed cervids.

Under the proposed program change, CFIA will consider CWD to be established in Alberta and Saskatchewan, emerging in Manitoba and not detected in the rest of Canada. Under the new proposed program, CFIA will not order the destruction of CWD-infected herds in Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba.

CWD is spreading across Canada. The disease is established in wild cervids in Saskatchewan and much of Alberta. New cases are continually detected in cervid farms and wild cervids in the two provinces.

CWD has also been found in Québec in 2018 and was detected in British Columbia in wild cervids in January 2024. Since 2021, Manitoba has been searching for CWD in wild cervids. Other provinces have not seen any CWD in their wild cervid populations and there is no CWD in the wild populations of caribou either.

To date, there has been no known transmission of CWD to humans and no direct evidence to suggest CWD could be transmitted to humans. However, there is always an uncertainty for zoonotic (animal to human) cross-species transmission.

Under the proposed change, CFIA will work collaboratively with provinces not affected by CWD to carry out eradication measures if the first case is detected in a farmed cervid, on the condition that the relevant provincial or territorial wildlife authority carry out similar eradication measures in wild cervids near the infected farm. This response will prevent further spread of CWD into other parts of Canada.

Restrictions on movement of live cervids from CWD-infected herds are controlled under CFIA’s Cervid Movement Permit policy. Live cervids originating from CWD-infected herds in Canada will continue to be permitted to move only to terminal locations (abattoirs or terminal hunt farms) if allowed by provincial or territorial authorities.

The CFIA’s current CWD control program encourages disease prevention and early detection by focusing response action on CWD-infected herds enrolled in the CWD herd certification program (HCP), found to be compliant at level D or higher through CWD HCP compliance evaluation.

The CFIA takes response actions in CWD-infected herds not eligible for the CWD compartment response. These can include placing a quarantine, tracing epidemiological links to other cervids herds and conducting confirmatory testing.

The second goal of the current CWD Control Programs applies to all CWD-infected farmed cervid herds and aligns with Health Canada’s recommended precautionary approach to keep cervids known to be infected with CWD out of the commercial food supply.

Currently, all CWD-exposed cervids (those from CWD-infected farms) must be tested for CWD. Their results must be negative before their consumable products can be released into the marketplace.

Questions can be emailed to CWD-MDC@inspection.gc.ca

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Waterfowl hunting opened Sept. 1, while archery deer hunters started a few days earlier. Now though, with most harvest wrapping up, farmers who celebrate the end of the growing season with a well-earned hunting trip can start to join in.

Bird hunting is in full swing, while muzzle loader and rifle deer hunters are anticipating their seasons not far down the road. A full list of season dates can be found in Manitoba’s 2025 hunting guide, available online through the Government of Manitoba’s Natural Resources and Indigenous Futures department.

There are some highs and lows expected this year, depending on your game of choice.

Ducks and geese decline

Spring waterfowl and wetland surveys run by the U.S Fish and Wildlife Service and the Canadian Wildlife Service flagged ongoing declines for most waterfowl and their habitat base. Some birds that would normally nest in the pothole region seemed to shift to northern forest wetlands. When this occurs, those birds mostly take a pass on nesting.

One survey participant I talked to also noted generally poor wetland conditions. Lower than average breeding success was expected.

It wasn’t a surprise, therefore, when late summer duck banding programs in southern Manitoba struggled to achieve their targets. There were few ducks around. Furthermore, low numbers of young birds pointed to a relatively poor hatch.

It was a feat to ensure that these surveys, which have run continuously since the 1950s, occurred at all. Major government cutbacks hit the U.S. initiative, considered to be the gold standard for wildlife population monitoring. Experienced staff were lost, but the remaining dedicated and innovative folks found ways to get the work done — for this year at least. On the Canadian side, hiring freezes are also thinning the ranks of capable individuals. All told, one of the world’s best wildlife surveys is on thin ice.

Long-term breeding ground studies across the north provide estimates of Arctic goose production. Northern breeding and moulting areas such as Hudson Bay and southern Baffin Island — the source of most snow geese that migrate through southern Manitoba — had another bust production year. However, breeding success for northern Canada and Ross’s geese was closer to average.

Interestingly, spring surveys in the south are tracking declines in locally breeding Canada geese, which started just a few seasons ago. Band returns show that these birds are not being overharvested. One waterfowl biologist suggested to me that the recent dry years may have affected breeding success.

Even with this decline however, geese remain well above long-term averages, and so goose numbers and hunting opportunities will abound this fall.

Hunters I talked to had variable experiences during the opening week of the season. Long-time Delta Marsh hunters reported the lowest duck numbers seen in recent memory, despite excellent wetland conditions. Reports from western Manitoba were more promising. By the second week of the season, flights of field-bound mallards and pintails were providing earlier than normal field hunts.

Concentrations of blue-winged teal were impressive in a few areas — my son and I found good numbers on a shallow lake in central Manitoba — but it seems that many pulled out after the first cold spell a few days after the September long weekend. Species like mallard, gadwall, pintail and shoveler were generally scarce in central areas, but were reported to be building up further west. Perhaps the birds that migrated further north this spring are now starting to show up in some areas.

In contrast to ducks, the build-up of geese seems to have started early. Reports of early September field hunts have come in from across the province.

Grouse elusive

Winter conditions generally have little impact on our native grouse, but wet springs and early summers can hurt breeding success. Since we were on the dry side through that period, I had been hopeful that grouse opportunities would improve significantly.

However, early season reports have been a little disappointing. Friends who hunt in the southwest reported good sharp-tail numbers, but few Hungarian partridge so far, while reports from the Interlake ranged from below to above last year’s numbers.

It’s hard to make confident predictions about ruffed grouse before the leaves have fallen, but those I talked to had seen relatively few grouse broods in late summer. In early September, I went for a long walk for mushrooms in one of my favourite Whiteshell ruffed grouse haunts. I came back with a big haul of ‘lobster’ and ‘hedgehog’ mushrooms, but no grouse were flushed.

I will cling to the hope of better reports as the season rolls along.

Deer numbers similar to last year

Year over year, deer are affected by winter severity more than any other single factor. Wildlife managers use an index of severity that takes into account the length of time deeper snows stick around and the number of cold days.

Provincial wildlife staff told me that deer experienced an average winter, more or less, and fawn sightings in many areas have been encouraging. That said, some parts of the province delivered a more difficult winter. I have heard reports from archery hunters of fewer deer in some southwestern locales. The Duck Mountains and Riding Mountain National Park areas experienced deep snows, so deer numbers likely took a hit.

Overall though, the province kept deer harvest regulations pretty much unchanged from last year. Hunters can take any white-tailed deer in the archery, muzzle loader or general deer seasons. Up to two additional tags are available for antlerless deer in certain Game Hunting Areas.

Mule deer opportunities continue this fall, along with licence fees at bargain-basement prices, part of the province’s strategy against chronic wasting disease (CWD). Consult the 2025 hunting guide to find the specifics for your hunting areas.

There are a few ways big game hunters can help provincial wildlife management. One is to go to the online provincial licensing portal and complete a short volunteer hunter survey after the season. It asks questions like “Did you see fewer, more, or about the same number of deer as you did last year?” These paint a detailed picture when the views of hundreds or thousands of hunters are analyzed and can affect future management decisions.

Hunters can be tight lipped when it comes to information sharing, and it seems to me that Manitoba hunters are particularly so. Volunteer hunter surveys in other jurisdictions will get upwards of 30 per cent participation. Here, it struggles to reach five per cent. Hunters like to gripe when we believe that not enough is being done to manage our wildlife, yet here’s a simple way for hunters to make a unique contribution, and it’s mostly ignored. I don’t get it.

Chronic wasting disease in 2025

The good news from last year’s CWD sampling program was that only three white-tailed deer and one mule deer tested positive from over 3,000 samples. The positives came from close to the western and southwestern border areas. This points to a still modest spread of CWD, which is gratifying.

The main reason why mule deer get extra attention on this issue is because they seem to be more susceptible to CWD and are also more nomadic. The province therefore encourages a high harvest.

CWD testing is the second way big game hunters can make a critical contribution to management decisions. As one wildlife branch staffer put it, “Licensed hunters are the No. 1 ally in the fight against CWD.”

If you take an animal in the CWD surveillance zone (see the hunting guide), or suspect that your animal may be afflicted, submit a sample to one of the many depots listed on the province’s CWD website. You’ll get a free hat or toque for your efforts. More importantly, you’ll have the comfort of knowing whether your animal has CWD.

Hunter participation is surprisingly low, and it has been declining. That’s too bad, because hunters need to be vigilant on the CWD front. In other jurisdictions where CWD is well established, deer numbers are in steady decline.

Moose and elk

Normally any discussion of moose and elk seasons at this time is a bit of a yawn. Seasons and licenses have been set months in advance. In the last two years though, moose and elk seasons have had their share of drama.

This summer, the province announced an extra allocation of 250 moose tags in response to results from moose surveys in sections of the province.

That was offset by cuts to moose tags in northern Manitoba in the summer of 2024, shortly before the season opening. That followed demands by northern Indigenous communities to stop the hunt, but did not involve consultations with the Manitoba Wildlife Federation (MWF), whose membership includes significant numbers of licensed hunters.

The unprecedented provincial action led to an unprecedented response by MWF. It initiated a legal challenge against the government in provincial court. That case was heard late last fall, and a ruling is pending.

This year, the province closed parts of Game Hunting Areas 9A and 10 to licensed moose hunters. Again, hunting groups were not involved in consultations.

Another big issue in early September was the Bloodvein First Nation’s road blockade and intention to turn away licensed moose hunters on the east side Lake Winnipeg access road that runs through their reserve.

Late in the afternoon of the first day of the licensed hunting season, the province announced it was banning licensed hunters from zones around the Rice Lake Road and along a large area of the Bloodvein River. It’s difficult to how the province’s closures to licensed hunters this year will not set a precedent.

Some better news for hunters arrived with last-minute changes for elk tag recipients for Game Hunting Areas 29, 29A and 30. The limit, which was one bull elk, has been expanded to any elk. Elk numbers in these agricultural areas are growing, and the province has responded with this additional opportunity.

Heading afield

The mixed bag of hunting opportunities this fall is what we would expect almost every year, but this year, there is an additional layer of socio-political considerations that we have not seen before in Manitoba. My fingers are crossed for far-sighted leadership and equitable outcomes.

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Due to CFIA privacy laws, that’s about as much as Manitoba Beef Producers (MBP) president Matthew Atkinson knows about the case.

However, he would still like the operation impacted by the incident — as well as any who may have such a problem in the future, be they beef or dairy operations — to reach out to the dairy industry or MBP for help, including the communication of compensation details if necessary.

“The hardships that they are going through can’t be shared with us. We don’t know what’s going on and so we can’t provide support unless somebody reaches out and asks for that support, but we are here as that resource to help them through that.”

WHY IT MATTERS: Manitoba industry and officials spent significant effort to stamp out bovine tuberculosis and, until 2025, it had been well over a decade since the last cattle case in the province.

Labs found the bacteria responsible for the disease June 9 in samples taken from a seven-year-old cow at a federally registered abattoir in the province, according to a CFIA news release. The finding was confirmed June 13 and the CFIA released a notice to industry June 16.

The processor was later confirmed as the True North Foods plant at Carman, Man., by the company’s chief executive officer Calvin Vaags.

The CFIA said the originating farm was identified using DairyTrace, Canada’s national traceability program for the dairy industry. The herd has been quarantined pending “further testing and depopulation,” said the agency.

Atkinson said he sympathizes with any farmer whose operation has been quarantined, especially if there’s a possibility of depopulation due to a disease that requires reporting to the CFIA.

“The livestock on our farms are a lot more than livestock or a tool to make a living from,” he said.

“It’s unimaginable the mental toll of having to see herds depopulated as well as the loss of all those years worth of bloodlines on those herds and good breeding.”

Better compensation

On June 18 the Government of Canada announced increases to its maximum compensation amounts for cattle that are ordered destroyed.

An amendment to the Compensation for Destroyed Animals and Things Regulations (CDATR) increased the rates by up to $16,500 per head for registered (purebred) cattle (up $10,000 from the previous rate set in 2015) and up to $10,000 per head for commercial cattle (up from $4,500).

“It is important to note that the actual amount of compensation to be paid to an owner or producer is calculated based on the current market value of the animal,” wrote the CFIA in an email.

Bovine TB incidents handled quickly

Although Canada is considered free of the disease, isolated cases in cattle may — and have — transpired, federal officials say.

That disease-free status doesn’t change with this incident because the infection was quickly acted on, says Atkinson.

“They all get a clean bill of health before anything’s moving. So that’s really the great length that the CFIA goes to ensure that the rest of us maintain that TB-free status.”

The incident is a case study in the fact that CFIA inspections work, said Atkinson.

“(They) found it at point of slaughter and that’s a good thing to know.”

The CFIA will be tracing the movement of animals to and from the farm in the past five years so that testing can be arranged, read an email from the CFIA.

Can lie dormant for years

Bovine tuberculosis can be tricky. According to the agency, the bacteria can lie dormant in an infected animal for years without causing clinical signs or progressive symptoms. However, it can reactivate in older animals or during periods of stress in younger ones.

Initial signs of the disease include enlarged lesions found in animal tissue, including lymph nodes on the head and thorax, lungs, spleen, and liver.

When progressive disease occurs, the general signs include weakness, loss of appetite, weight loss and fluctuating fever. Extensively diseased, lungs there can result in an intermittent, hacking cough.

Atkinson says the disease is challenging to detect on-farm, especially in its early stages.

“It’s often something that doesn’t show much for symptoms.”

Movement between herds a critical vector

The disease is spread among animals by a number of means, says the CFIA. They shed the bacteria in respiratory secretions and aerosols, feces, milk and sometimes in urine, vaginal secretions or semen.

Other animals can contract the disease by inhaling micro-droplets in aerosols from already-infected animals and the ingestion of contaminated food and water.

Moving cattle from one herd to another with subsequent extended close contact increases transmission risk, writes the CFIA.

“In addition, where infected wildlife are a reservoir of disease, there is the potential for ongoing transmission to livestock.”

Trade action doubtful, but vigilance recommended

Atkinson doesn’t think the incident will affect trade either internationally or interprovincially thanks to quick action on the part of the agency.

“We are currently addressing and eradicating anything that is there and so that’s really part of the reasoning why we need to make sure that those folks get really fairly looked after and compensated, because realistically, they go through an awful lot of hardship that allows the rest of us to maintain (that) trade status.”

Trade and bovine tuberculosis

Andre Steppler is a purebred cattle producer from Miami, Man., in the western Pembina Valley.

He’s a little more vigilant on the possibility of trade disruption considering the tempestuous political climate between Canada and the U.S., despite the fact U.S. cattle producers struggle with TB as well.

“In this climate that we have with our politics now, we don’t want to give any excuse to shut a border. And when it comes to disease it’s a pretty justifiable excuse to shut a border if there’s a disease risk.

“I’m not saying we have a disease risk here with TB, but it opens the door for some conversations.”

Something Steppler finds odd is how a cow could have contracted TB in the Pembina Valley in the first place considering the area’s relatively light wildlife pressure compared to other Manitoba regions.

Areas around Riding Mountain National Park in Manitoba’s northwest were the more typical area for the disease, historically.

Wildlife testing in the late ’90s and early ’00s found cases in the region’s wild elk. The wild vector led the CFIA to establish the Riding Mountain TB Eradication Area around the park, which came with additional scrutiny and requirements for farmers moving cattle in and out of the zone.

The Pembina Valley doesn’t exactly have a thriving elk population.

“We’re predominantly a grain land type area, so we don’t see elk herds like people do in other parts of the province or Canada. I feel that we are a little bit less at risk because of that,” Steppler said.

The fact it occurred in a dairy herd opens up more questions, he says.

“With it being a dairy herd where there’s more control (over) those animals where they just don’t have as much chance to run … They just don’t have the same exposure to wildlife as maybe a beef operation would.”

The elk population is mushrooming in Western Canada, says Steppler, and he’s frustrated by what he sees as a reluctance on the part of the government to survey the wild animals and find out how many there are.

Complicating matters is the fact dairy cows and elk can get along quite well.

“The elk will actually hang out with cows if the cows will allow it. So there is that cross-contamination of feed sources or nose-to-nose contact with the cows themselves.”

Spread to humans rare, but possible

The CFIA describes bovine TB as a chronic, contagious bacterial livestock disease. It’s occasionally found in other mammalian species infected with the Mycobacterium bovis (M. bovis) bacteria.

Despite its cross-infection potential, human cases of bovine TB in Canada are very rare.

However, the agency says exposure can still occur by the passage of fluids to open skin sores, extended close contact with animals infected with active respiratory TB, or consuming raw or unpasteurized animal products — such as unpasteurized milk — from an infected animal.

Owners and handlers of infected cattle may be at elevated risk. The CFIA recommends anyone exposed to an infected animal seek medical advice. Bovine TB — which presents itself in humans similarly to human TB — can be treated successfully with antimicrobial drugs. Untreated infections have the potential to be fatal.

“Currently the risk to the general population in Canada is very low due to pasteurization of milk and livestock surveillance and testing programs,” wrote the CFIA.

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“The program is currently experiencing a two-to-four-week wait time, but the department anticipates that will increase given the expected influx of samples being received,” said a provincial spokesperson in an emailed statement.

CWD is an incurable, fatal disease that affects cervids, including mule deer, white-tailed deer, elk, moose and caribou. The disease is related to BSE, though it does not appear to naturally infect cattle. While it’s not known as a human health risk, consuming meat from an infected animal isn’t recommended.

Last year, the Manitoba government expanded surveillance for CWD following the discovery of the first positive cases in late 2021. During the 2022–23 hunting season, biological sample submissions surged 500 per cent to 6,000, up from the pre-CWD average of 1,000. That stretched resources to the limit and caused long sample processing times.

According to the province’s CWD testing page, hunters could expect to wait 16 to 20 weeks at the height of last season’s backlog.

In July, the province announced it had allocated $880,000 in funding and made several regulatory changes to the Wildlife Health Program to address the backlog.

Those changes included increased staffing, with one new full-time wildlife health biologist position and five seasonal lab technician positions.

The changes also gave hunters the option to extract and submit tissue samples for testing, rather than the whole head and upper neck of the animal. To accommodate the extra time that would take, the mandatory submission period for hunters was extended from two days to seven.

The Wildlife Health Program also expanded its partnerships to labs outside Canada. According to the provincial government website for CWD, the accredited facilities within Canada are limited and were overwhelmed during the 2022–23 hunting season, which resulted in slower turnaround for test results.

Another measure to ease pressure was removal of the requirements for bovine TB testing, because Manitoba has been considered free of bovine tuberculosis since 2016. However, recent detection of TB along the Saskatchewan border has the government second-guessing that decision.

A provincial spokesperson said officials would monitor the situation and may adjust this regulatory change if the risk to wildlife increases.

The province also hoped to streamline the sample collection process by enlisting help from local wildlife associations but the plan was delayed due to the provincial election. According to a provincial spokesperson, business cases were resubmitted when the new government was formed and are still being finalized.

That could explain some of the sample testing delays, although the provincial spokesperson didn’t confirm that.

“Staff have been very busy collecting and processing samples to avoid a backlog. Results are returned to hunters as quickly as possible,” they said.

According to the provincial CWD website, 17 new positive cases were identified during the 2022–23 hunting season: 14 male mule deer, one female mule deer and two male white-tailed deer. That brings the total to 22 detected cases (five male mule deer tested positive in 2021-22). This number is as of July 2023 and doesn’t include samples sent for testing this season.

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Two Manitoba herds were connected to cases of bovine tuberculosis found in Saskatchewan earlier this year. Testing is complete on one of those herds, the Canadian Food Inspection Agency said in a statement sent to the Co-operator Oct. 23. At the time of the email, the second herd was still being tested. 

Why it matters: A TB-infected cow came to the CFIA’s attention after it was shipped to the U.S., where the infection was detected in February. 

Both herds are in the region around Swan River, said MBP general manager Carson Callum. 

That is near the old bovine TB eradication zone around Riding Mountain National Park. 

“It’s something that we would hope that the provincial government and the CFIA would be monitoring,” he said. 

Testing so far has not shown anything “overly concerning,” he said, but the process continues. 

This July, Manitoba removed requirements for hunters to submit samples to test for bovine TB in the long-established eradication zone. In a program update, it said Manitoba has been free of bovine TB since 2016, making precautionary testing unnecessary. 

The same release indicated provincial resources would be focused on chronic wasting disease surveillance in wild game. That illness was first detected in the province in 2021 and has been found in 22 cases as of July, according to Government of Manitoba data. 

“We are actively monitoring the situation in both Manitoba and Saskatchewan and will adjust requirements as new information becomes available,” a provincial spokesperson said in an Oct. 24 statement. “If risk to wildlife increases, Manitoba could revive the testing requirements.” 

In early October, Saskatchewan announced expansion of wildlife testing to include bovine TB. 

Cases were detected after a Saskatchewan animal shipped to the U.S. tested positive in February. The CFIA quarantined the source herd, and herds connected to it, for further testing. 

That was done throughout the year but was delayed by spring calving and pasture turnout. 

Lab testing of samples from a related Saskatchewan herd is ongoing and an Alberta herd still needs to be tested, the CFIA said. 

As of Oct. 16, the CFIA’s most recent update, there were 32 confirmed cases of bovine TB. 

Testing in Manitoba hasn’t raised concern among elk producers, says the Manitoba Elk Growers Association. 

“Our herds are regularly tested and inspected for TB, brucellosis and CWD,” said association president Ian Thorleifson in an Oct. 24 email. “No incidence of any of these diseases has ever been detected in a farmed cervid in Manitoba over our 70-year history of continuous operation.” 

Elk herds don’t mingle with other herds at auction marts or community pastures, which reduces exposure, he added.

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In fact, according to Ian Thorleifson, provincial programs in regions like Alberta have already gone above and beyond what the federal proposal would entail.

Livestock sectors have until June to give feedback on proposed changes to federal traceability rules under the Canadian Food Inspection Agency.

Thorleifson, president of the Manitoba Elk Growers Association, is a longstanding voice in the development of livestock traceability programs in Canada. He also has a pending role on the Canadian Cattle Identification Agency board, representing cervids including elk.

Despite its name, the CCIA also administers traceability for bison and sheep and will add goats and cervids, assuming proposed regulation changes go through.

The CFIA recently opened a 90-day comment period on its proposed traceability changes. The new rules would make goats and cervids subject to federal traceability programs for the first time, under the reasoning that both species can share disease with other regulated livestock. Other non-species-specific changes would shorten the reporting window and require more geographical data.

Thorleifson noted the elk sector started pursuing traceability in 1989 at the behest of provinces and wildlife agencies.

Nationally, other livestock groups at the time were also talking about traceability, looking to both avoid trade disruptions from disease and capitalize on the market appeal of pasture-to-plate. But while the cattle sectors became covered under the CCIA, elk producers were left to continue developing regional systems.

The result was a regulatory patchwork, with some provinces having little traceability and Alberta developing a gold standard for the industry.

The detail of Alberta’s cervid farming system helps facilitate live animal export to the U.S., the sector’s most profitable market, Thorleifson said.

The program is mandatory for elk producers in that province, Connie Seutter noted. The Edmonton-area farmer is also president of the Canadian Cervid Alliance.

“It tracks a cervid from the day it’s born to the day it dies and anywhere it’s travelled in between,” she said.

Producers get a certificate for each calf after birth. Any sale or export of the animal is then tracked. That information is the basis for annual inventories.

“When we pull up a list of all of our animals and what’s happened to them, as many as ever have been on our farm, it’ll tell us exactly what’s happened with that animal…It’s been very useful in that sense. There’s no questions ever,” Seutter said.

Yukon has a similar system as Alberta, although not as well enforced, Thorleifson noted, while the elk sector in the Maritimes is small with little traceability, although the animals must be identified. Both Manitoba and Saskatchewan have basic inventory systems, while Ontario is “very open,” he said.

“There’s no legislation that governs the cervid industry, however the Ministry of Natural Resources [and Forestry] still has a very powerful say in what happens with cervid species, because there’s never been a clear statement that farmed cervids were not subject to the wildlife legislation in Ontario,” he said.

Farmed cervids in Quebec have been subject to provincial livestock ID and traceability requirements since 2009. Thorleifson says that program is more a tool to trace inventory for farm insurance purposes.

“The short summary of all of that is that the cervid industry in Canada is very familiar with traceability, very familiar with the tagging requirements, movement reporting, inventory reporting.”

Consistency

The proposed new CFIA rules would create more standardization, but would still be a hybrid system in practice, Thorleifson said.

Alberta was loath to replace its well-oiled method with a federal alternative that many considered less comprehensive, he noted. The federal system would track movement but not inventories. Quebec also wanted its own approach.

“It’s not going to be uniform across Canada. It may never be,” Thorleifson said, though it will allow provinces without previous strong programs to make up ground.

For Alberta producers, little would change under the CFIA’s proposal. Producers would use the same tags as they do now and still report to the cervid farming system. Required information would be passed from the provincial system to the CFIA through a new data portal.

In Quebec, producers would follow a similar protocol through that province’s traceability agency, Attestra.

All other provinces would use tags approved by the CCIA, which would then give the data to the CFIA.

“It’s going to be an interesting situation, but overall, it’s not hard to imagine how it’s going to work and I think it will work quite well,” Thorleifson said. “And it will be advantageous for producers.”

He pointed to increased market access and better ability to move animals within Canada, which sometimes has as tight or tighter restrictions than international requirements.

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Instead, he said, “Support and promotion of the product and its versatility, quality and excellence are as much a part of elk raising, as quality feeding and handling. It is important, however, to distinguish the farming process from the product and its marketing.”

For some 40 years, elk farming has been part of livestock production in Manitoba. Early operations were essentially zoos, Thorleifson noted, part of early agro-tourism. As those operators became aware of how well elk fit into a domesticated livestock system and the many market opportunities however, the idea of larger-scale ranching began to develop. 

At its peak, Manitoba boasted over 50 elk farms, stocked with close to 6,000 elk, but diseases like BSE and chronic wasting disease (CWD) has had a detrimental impact. To date, there has never been a case of those diseases on a Manitoba elk farm — although the province found its first cases of CWD in wild deer last year. Likewise, Thorleifson said, there has never been a case of bovine tuberculosis in Manitoba-farmed elk. 

The restrictions and regulations, however, have had a dramatic cooling effect on the sector, he argued. Today, there are 20 elk farms operating with 1,270 head. 

Thorleifson and his family began in the cervid farming business with reindeer and elk in the late 1980s. They were allowed to keep the reindeer at the family’s ranch near Horod, although elk had to be boarded at a farm across the border in Saskatchewan. Since that time, Thorleifson has raised and traded elk, red deer, whitetails, reindeer, sika deer, bison, and cattle from New Brunswick to Alberta, with elk being steadily marketed. 

The Manitoba producer says the elk-farming industry is blessed with a diversity of markets, including meat and byproducts from meat processing. There is also demand for hard antler for dog chews, carving, chandeliers and furniture, and mineral supplements — antler in the “velvet,” or growing phase, is valued in the nutraceutical market for arthritis, energy and stamina, recovery from wounds and internal organ protection. Hunting trophies are another avenue, one prized around the world. 

Access to trophy ranches that sell the opportunity to harvest bulls is the biggest challenge Manitoba elk farmers face, Thorleifson said. These operations are huge areas – 2,000 to 30,000 acres – and are very successful, with hunters paying $4,000 to $7,000 to harvest a small bull. A big antlered bull can expect to fetch $40,000 and up, with a percentage going to the producer. 

“Easily this is the most profitable market for elk. It’s also the most humane way to harvest them – quietly and effectively in their own comfortable habitat,” Thorleifson argued. 

It is also, however, a market the elk sector can’t find at home. Provincial regulations do not allow trophy ranches in Manitoba. 

CWD findings last year raised concern around trophy bull sales, since certain U.S. state laws would preclude the trade of animals from an area where the disease is considered active.

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