Columbia Valley Pioneer staff

A veteran researcher says that wolves can help stop the spread of chronic wasting disease (CWD) in the ungulate population.

In recent correspondence with the Regional District of East Kootenay (RDEK), Gary R. Allan presented his case for using wolves against this fatal neurological disease that affects deer, elk, moose, and other animals.

Allan, president of Tundra Speaks Society and operator of SWELL Wolf Education Centre, told RDEK directors that CWD cannot be eradicated.

“You do not want CWD to get established in soil or vegetation as that will transmit it further and stronger than animal-to-animal transmission.”

Allan also said that no jurisdiction in Canada or the USA has been able to stop the spread through human hunting.

“Why is B.C. only using human hunting as their primary management system when it has been such a failed strategy?” Allan questioned, adding that hunting groups have completely ignored the effectiveness of wolves to control CWD. He maintains that the government should allow wolves to hunt infected ungulates.

Allan referred to the six confirmed cases of CWD in Region 4 (the Kootenays), noting that wolves have killed and consumed CWD-infected cervids (deer) in this region. “So I think it would be a folly to think there are only six confirmed cases in your regional district.”

Allan said B.C. wildlife officials have raised the possibility of wolves consuming infected cervids and passing on the deadly protein in their scat. But he noted that two prominent researchers in the US say that transmission of CWD in wolf scat is very low.

Allan said that if ranchers and farmers in the region are importing hay from jurisdictions like Alberta, Saskatchewan and Montana, they are “very, very literally importing CWD.”

The researcher highlighted the need to adopt strategies that will prevent the worst, arguing that wolves need to be part of that strategy.

As for CWD spreading to humans, Allan cited one expert opinion from Dr. M. Osterholm who believes it is very likely to happen.

Allan pointed to a University of Calgary study involving feeding CWD-infected meat to macaques (monkeys) over a three-year period. Three out of the five primates that were fed the meat tested positive for CWD, Allan noted. 

“This is what concerned scientists like Dr. M. Osterholm because CWD jumped the species barrier and could kill humans.” 

Allan strongly recommended that the RDEK pressure the B.C government to curtail wolf hunting and trapping in Region 4 and instead use wolves to control this “insidious” disease.

The RDEK board took no action on Allan’s correspondence but merely received it for information.