Several hunters are involved in the CWD monitoring program



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Since this year's hunting season is over, many samples have been submitted to check that the disease has sweated in the province.

Chronic infection (CWD) affects animals such as Mule Deer, Moose and Elk, causing death in all those who have a distress.

The annual CWD study in the province requires hunters to submit a sample of the animals they were hunting for analysis and found that this year's sample size increased.

Animal health specialist Saskatchewan Iga Stasaik says there are no real surprises at the moment in terms of the number of cases of diseases they have discovered.

"Most of our positive examples were in Mula Deer, in areas of the province where we know that we have a chronic illness; at this stage it is still impossible to compare, so we are not in a phase where we can compare with previous years; this will take some time, we will wait to get all the information, then we have to look and evaluate by region to see if there are any changes. "

The samples analyzed in the study include both whole animal heads as well as samples of the brain they are hunting.

Stasaik said that the study, which has been taking place since 2000, has significantly increased this year's number in comparison with the year, which is partly due to the ability of hunters to run animals and test them.

"We had quite good participation, last year we had just over 800 heads collected, and this year we had a real increase in the number of entries, we had more than 1,500 heads collected for testing, we are likely to reach 2000 before the end of the season."

Fourteen of the five samples submitted were considered positive, according to Stasaik, most of the samples are still pending.

Some ways of preventing the spread of disease are possible through the implementation of some practices, including the prevention of animal feeding and feeding and the movement of animal carcasses.

The Ministry of the Environment seeks to design and implement a disease reduction plan based on these and other practices, as described by Stasaik.

"Well, that's all we'll be seeing in the coming months in the next year, and we'll think about what we can do, including a change in the allocation of harvest in certain areas, we know that older classes, older dollars, are more likely that they will be infected, so that with a greater yield of older dollars, which can help in transferring the risk. "

While some of the visible symptoms of CWD are excessive blindness, ear lice, or abnormal behavior, these symptoms can only be presented during the last week of animal life, while the animal may have been affected for two to three years without having to be mentioned.

Animals infected with chronic treatment are not hazardous to consumption, but Stasaik says animals as a precautionary measure know that suffering should not be enjoyed.

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