Tuberculosis, Cervids - Canada (MB) - Archive Number 20070918.3094
ProMED-mail - promedmail.org
18 Sep 2007
Area: Manitoba Canada
I am responding to questions raised in the recent posting on findings of bovine tuberculosis in wild cervids in and around Riding Mountain National Park (RMNP) in Manitoba, Canada. Surveillance for bovine tuberculosis in wild cervids in and around RMNP consists of 2 elements: a capture-collar-test program that is used inside the park where hunting is not permitted; and a hunter-harvest sampling program that is used outside the RMNP boundaries where hunting is permitted. Blood tests are a component of the capture-collar-test program only, wherein wild elk are captured using a net-gun fired from a helicopter, a radio-collar is attached to the elk, and whole blood and serum are collected. If a rapid test is being conducted on the blood sample, any positive animal is humanely destroyed at the time of capture.
Otherwise the collared elk is released and the results of the blood tests are awaited. If the results require the animal to be destroyed, the radio-collar is used to locate the animal by helicopter, the animal is recaptured and humanely destroyed, the carcass necropsied, and tissue samples are collected for histopathology and culture which is carried out by the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) Laboratory. The blood tests that were performed by the CFIA Laboratory on whole blood and serum samples collected from the captured wild cervids were the lymphocyte stimulation test (LST) and the fluorescent polarization assay for bovine tuberculosis (FPA-TB). Another test, a proprietary rapid test developed by Chembio Inc., was performed on-site by Parks Canada staff. Not all cervids received all tests.
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