Is BC’s Wolf Cull Setting the Stage for a Disaster?

The B.C. government justifies its annual wolf kill by saying it’s needed to protect endangered caribou.

But what if the hunt, which has cost $10 million and killed 2,200 wolves since 2015, is endangering not just caribou, but deer, mountain goats and — possibly — people?

The science isn’t clear. But the concern is real.

Two cases of chronic wasting disease in deer were confirmed earlier this year, and on Thursday the government said a third case has been confirmed.

It’s called the zombie deer disease and can affect all ungulate populations — deer, elk, sheep and goats. The doomed animals twitch, fall over, drool and display erratic behaviours before slowly dying.

It’s fatal and easily spread as ungulates eat vegetation that has been contaminated by slobber, urine or other bodily fluids.

And there is concern that CWD could spread to humans.

Dr. Jan Hajek, an infectious diseases doctor based at Vancouver General Hospital and a clinical assistant professor of medicine at the University of British Columbia, says the risk shouldn’t be dismissed.

“Although many things are still unknown, the idea that CWD could potentially spread to humans is more than mere speculation,” Hajek told The Tyee.

What is chronic wasting disease?

CWD is a prion disease. The Public Health Agency of Canada describes prion disease as a “rare, fatal, degenerative” brain disorder found in humans and animals. The diseases cause healthy brain proteins to “fold” or form “abnormally” through contact with infectious prion protein particles.

Prion disease is not a bacterial or viral infection — it is a protein alteration. It is 100-per-cent fatal.

Why the wolf cull matters

In 2017 an article in Mountain Journal looked at the role apex predators (like wolves and cougars) play in limiting the spread of CWD and other diseases by removing the sick and the injured before they can spread the illness.

It quoted professional biologist Gary J. Wolfe, a former Montana Fish Wildlife and Parks commissioner who had worked on CWD issues.

“While I don’t think any of us large carnivore proponents are saying that wolf predation will prevent CWD, or totally eliminate it from infected herds, it is ecologically irresponsible to not consider the very real possibility that wolves can slow the spread of CWD and reduce its prevalence in infected herds,” Wolfe says. “We should… let wolves do their job of helping to cull infirm animals from the herds.”

That’s not the approach being taken in B.C., where the wolf cull continues since its revival in 2015.

Raising the question, did these predator killings contribute to CWD increase and potential human infection over the years?

Sadie Parr, a long-time wolf researcher and conservationist based in Golden, B.C., said in an interview that the government isn’t taking the risk seriously enough.

“I recently participated in the government wildlife management meetings for the provincial wolf cull, I put it to them point blank — are you concerned that the reduction in wolves is going to contribute to the spread of CWD?”

According to Parr the response was short. Government staff “told me they were ‘worried’ and that they were having ‘internal discussions,’” she said.

Parr said she pushed for more clarity during closed door stakeholder meetings and government staff told her “academics are studying it.”

Concerns, but no conclusive research

Cory Anderson is co-director of the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy at the University of Minnesota, which researches and monitors CWD.

In an interview, he said the issue of potential transmission to humans is not yet fully understood.

Similarly, he said, there are competing arguments on the impact of predator culls and the disease.

Anderson added that while it can be argued predators may limit the spread of CWD by removing infected animals from herds and thereby limiting human consumption and further spread of infectious proteins, “there is no clear scientific answer at this time if this is a net positive result.”

“One of the immediate concerns remains hunters consuming infected animals,” he said. The CWD program in Minnesota is aware of difficulties in convincing hunters to get all animals tested and not eating infected animals.

“It is very important for hunters to get their deer tested and not consume infected animals.”

Anderson added that CWD could potentially be more dangerous than Mad Cow disease.

The proteins are found in “saliva, feces, antler velvet, semen, urine, blood, skeletal muscle and the lymph system” of infected animals, he noted. This contrasts with Mad Cow which is almost exclusively located in brain tissue and the spinal cord.

There are “potentially more opportunities for routes of human exposure with CWD which make the presence of future infection risk very concerning,” Anderson said.

“Right now, because we know hunters have likely consumed infected animals, we are in the greatest human CWD experiment of our time.”

Erring on the side of caution

Legends, myths and even stories like Little Red Riding Hood have led to the vilification of predators.

Although the scientific community may not have firm CWD answers for many years to come, whether you are a hunter, an advocate for predator conservation, an academic or a government official studying the impacts of CWD, you should find common ground.

“There is increasing recognition of the interconnectedness between animals, humans and public health,” said Hajek. “It is easier to prevent spread upfront than to deal with the issues after.”

Hajek emphasized that infectious disease prevention and control and the cumulative impacts of human action on the landscape need to be at the centre of public conversations of wildlife and environmental conservation.

The potential risks of CWD are more than speculation, he said, and as a society we should be making the best precautionary decisions we can even without precise scientific information.

This position is softly echoed on the B.C. government’s CWD surveillance website where hunters are encouraged to have any deer they kill tested.

*Story updated on Nov. 22, 2024 at 1:45 p.m. to include new information about cases of chronic wasting disease in B.C.