Experts worry after stag meat from a sick herd has been introduced into the food system

MONTRÉAL – The Canadian Food Inspection Agency is exposing the public to unnecessary risks by allowing deer and elk meat from farms affected by a contagious disease to end up on consumers' plates, a group said. experts and advocates.

Chronic debilitating disease (CDD), a central nervous system infection similar to deadly mad cow disease for deer, elk, reindeer and moose, was found on a farm in the Laurentians Quebec last August, resulting in the killing of 2,789 deer.

While the 11 carcbades positive for the disease and seven others were destroyed, the others were allowed to enter the food system, including about 1,000 young animals that were not tested because the tests were not Sensitive enough to detect CWD in animals under 12 months of age, according to the Canadian Food Inspection Agency.

This news came as a surprise to some experts, including Neil Cashman, a professor of medicine at the University of British Columbia, who specializes in neurodegenerative diseases transmitted by prion proteins.

He said that although there is no documented case of chronic debilitating disease transmitted to humans, this can not be ruled out.

"If you provide meat, deer meat or elk meat or anything from a farm in which animals have been tested positive for MDC, if you provide it on the market for human consumption, it plays with fire in my opinion, "he said. a telephone interview.

He mentions an ongoing study that suggests that MDC can be pbaded on to other animals, including macaque monkeys, as well as in the case of mad cow, which originally Was not considered dangerous to humans, but was subsequently linked to a rare degenerative brain disease called Creutzfeldt-Jakob variant.

He added that it was even possible that doctors did not recognize early CWD disease if it affected a human being, as it could take on a different form.

"With all of this knowledge about prion hardness, environmental longevity, resistance to destruction and degradation, it is our responsibility to reduce the potential exposure to CWD," he declared.

Health Canada notes that there is no evidence that the disease infects humans, but recommends, as a precautionary measure, not to consume CWD infected animals and to take precautionary measures when handling the animals. carcbades of deer, elk and moose.

In an email, the Canadian Food Inspection Agency said that allowing Quebec farm animals to enter the food system did not violate this position.

"According to the Canadian Food Inspection Agency and Health Canada, animals and animal products that are infected with CWD are prohibited from entering Canada's food reserves," the agency said.

"The meat that was released into the human food chain came from animals that are not known to be infected with MDC."

The email indicated that "the MDC is not a known risk to human health or food safety, and that there has been no recorded case of human infection affected by disease".

He also indicated that his policy of allowing animals from CWD farms to feed only on deer and elk, which had a lower rate of transmission than other cervids.

The CWD was first detected in Canada in 1996 and has since spread to parts of Saskatchewan and Alberta. The deer farm in the Laurentians was the first documented case in Quebec.

Since 2014, animals from 21 herds of elk infected with MDC have been slaughtered for consumption with the agency's permission. The CFIA states that only adult flushes that test negative have been released into the food chain, as there is no market for moose meat under 12 months of age.

The position of the agency seems to have divided the scientists.

Some expressed concern about what they saw as a lack of caution, but two other experts consulted by the Canadian Press said they saw no reason to question the policy, since it did not matter. there was no evidence of risk.

Kerry Mower, Wildlife Specialist at the New Mexico Fish and Game Department, pointed out that humans had been eating deer and elk positive for CWD since at least the 1960s and that they were consuming sheep with a similar disease for hundreds of years without any known transmission.

But Kat Lanteigne, who co-founded an organization defending a safe blood transfusion system, was outraged to learn that animals from infected farms were being sent into the food system.

She said the federal government had quietly changed its policy in 2014 to allow this practice, leaving consumers and scientists unaware.

"None of the Canadian consumers know that there is an infectious prion disease, that is, the sister of mad cow, and that animals likely to be infected could end up on their barbecues and dinner plates, "said Lanteigne, executive director of Bloodwatch. .

In June, more than 30 people, including Lanteigne and Cashman, signed an open letter to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and other cabinet ministers, urging them to take further action to limit the spread of the disease.

The letter states that the threat is not just for human health, but also for trade and investment, noting that Norway has already banned imports of hay or straw from provinces where the disease is present.

"Despite the lessons learned from BSE and the dire threat posed by the MDC, official policy still allows for the transfer of live animals, products and equipment from farms. deer, the displacement of hunter carcbades and the continued exposure of humans – in violation of the principles of trust and professional ethics, "they wrote.

The signatories called on the government to give urgent directives to limit the spread of the disease, including eliminating deer farms, testing all animals in areas where the disease is present, and strengthening funds allocated to research and monitoring.

Morgan Lowrie, The Canadian Press