Elk Antler Velvet
Ms Blakeman: Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. Chronic wasting disease is a fatal, contagious illness of deer and elk. What is known is that it is spread from gamed, ranched deer and elk into wild populations. It has also been shown recently that chronic wasting disease can be found in elk antler velvet, which is used as a nutritional supplement in Alberta and around the world. My questions are to the Minister of Health and Wellness. Does the minister agree with the World Health Organization recommendation that all products, including velvet, from animals known to be infected with any prion disease should be excluded from the human food chain?
Mr. Liepert: It isn’t something that has come to the top of my pile of the to-do list, Mr. Speaker.
Ms Blakeman: Again to the same minister: if the current mode of transmission for chronic wasting disease from animal to animal is not known, does the minister not agree that every precaution should be taken to avoid human contact with potentially infected elk and deer?
Mr. Liepert: Well, Mr. Speaker, I must admit that this is something that I have heard discussed at caucus through the minister of sustainable resources. I think the Member for Lacombe-Ponoka is an elk rancher, and there are a number of rural members here, but I have to confess that it isn’t something that I can actually make a reasonable answer to in this House.
The Speaker: The hon. member.
Ms Blakeman: Thank you. My last question, then, is to the Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development. Is the department prepared to compensate game ranchers to help them phase out of this industry?
Mr. Groeneveld: Well, Mr. Speaker, certainly not. I would like to inform the member that Alberta has mandatory testing and import protocols in place to address CWD concerns for farmed elk and deer. It’s interesting to note that Alberta’s only case of CWD in farmed elk was in March of 2002, and we’ve tested over 50,000 captive cervids for CWD since 1996.
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