Chronic wasting disease

Overview

Chronic wasting disease (CWD) is a fatal and untreatable disease that affects the central nervous system of members of the deer family or “cervids” (e.g., white-tailed deer, American elk, moose and woodland caribou). There is no cure and no vaccine to prevent it. CWD has the potential to severely reduce cervids populations.

CWD is caused by infectious abnormal proteins called prions, which accumulate in the brain and other tissues leading to death. CWD is in the same family of diseases as scrapie in sheep, bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) in cattle (also known as “mad cow disease”) and Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease in humans.

CWD is highly contagious and can be spread through the saliva, urine, feces and blood of infected animals, by exposure to a contaminated environment. There is evidence the disease may remain infectious in the environment, such as in soil, for years.

Chronic wasting disease is now found in 26 US states and 3 Canadian provinces (Alberta, Saskatchewan, and Quebec). It has also been found in South Korea and, more recently, Norway, Sweden and Finland. Once present in wild cervids, it is very difficult to stop its spread.

NDMNRF has been monitoring deer in Ontario since 2002 and has found no evidence that the disease is present in Ontario wildlife, but it’s important to be vigilant. CWD would harm wildlife and the economy.

Download CWD Infographic (PDF)

Chronic wasting disease prevention and response plan

Our chronic wasting disease prevention and response plan was updated in 2019 to ensure it reflects current scientific knowledge, lessons learned from other jurisdictions, and the evolving roles of government agencies.

The plan sets out an adaptive, coordinated approach to the actions we are taking in partnership with other agencies to:

• minimize the threat posed by CWD
• protect the significant socio-economic, cultural and ecological benefits provided by Ontario’s wild deer, moose, elk and caribou

Read our Chronic wasting disease prevention and response plan.

Keeping chronic wasting disease out of Ontario

We have a number of measures in place to reduce the risk of chronic wasting disease entering Ontario.

Hunting in Ontario

Don’t use attractants or lures made from cervids when hunting. They are illegal to have and use in Ontario. They may contain infectious material and could introduce chronic wasting disease to Ontario.

Instead, use artificial or plant-based products.

Restrictions on importing and moving live cervids

Effective January 1, 2021:

• The import of all species of live captive cervids into Ontario is prohibited, unless authorized by a ministry-issued permit. This includes importing from other provinces, states or territories
• The movement and transportation of live captive cervids between points within Ontario is prohibited, unless authorized by a ministry-issued permit

Learn about applying for a permit to import or move live captive cervids.

Stay up to date on the latest hunting regulations. Detailed regulations related to transporting animal body parts are in Section 4 of Ontario Regulation 666/98.

Hunting outside of Ontario

New regulations came into effect January 1, 2021 to help reduce the risk of CWD coming into Ontario through imported cervid body parts hunted in other provinces, states or territories.

If you hunt cervids out of province, you can only bring back to Ontario:

• butchered, deboned and packaged meat
• a cleaned skull plate and antlers
• tanned hides and capes
• finished taxidermy mounts

It’s illegal to bring any other body parts from deer species into Ontario. These rules apply to all members of the deer family, or cervids, which comprise more than 37 species.

All imported parts must be clean of all other tissue and labelled with the:

• species name
• name and address of the owner
• location where the imported parts came from

Any unwanted parts must be disposed of at a facility authorized to receive animal waste/animal parts.

Hunters who have any part of a cervid that was transported into Ontario, and has also tested positive for CWD, must:

• let us know by calling or emailing your local NDMNRF District Office
• dispose of the parts according to our direction

Non-resident transport

Non-residents of Ontario may temporarily import raw hides, antlers, teeth, skulls, unprocessed meat and and skin of the head from deer species through Ontario if:

• the parts are in temporary transit through Ontario enroute to another province or state
• the parts are kept in a sealed container from which nothing can escape
• the container is labelled with the species, name and address of the owner
• the container is labeled with the location where the imported parts came from

Symptoms

Chronic wasting disease (CWD) is a progressive disease meaning that an infected animal may appear normal for several years before it develops symptoms.

Animals infected with CWD may exhibit:

• severe loss of body weight and body condition
• abnormal behaviour, such as indifference to human activity
• tremors, stumbling, lack of coordination or paralysis
• excessive drinking and urination
• excessive salivation/drooling
• drooping head/ears
• Note:
  • infected cervids may not show symptoms for several years
  • some of these individual symptoms may be seen in other diseases

If you see these signs in a wild cervid, note the location of the animal, and if possible, take photographs, and contact the Ministry of Northern Development, Mines, Natural Resources and Forestry (NDMNRF).

Testing

Monitoring is key to the early detection of chronic wasting disease (CWD) should it enter Ontario. Hunter participation in the surveillance program, by submitting heads of harvested deer for testing, is critical to Ontario’s efforts to detect CWD.

Since 2002, each year, the NDMNRF CWD surveillance program takes samples from hunter-harvested deer in areas with the highest risk of chronic wasting disease. Sampling locations vary from year to year. Locations are chosen based on the following known risk factors:

• proximity to neighbouring outbreaks
• deer and elk population density
• presence of cervid farms
• prior sampling effort
• winter deer feeding areas
• winter severity

Hunters who harvest a deer from a wildlife management unit with a testing location can have the animal tested free of charge by the NDMNRF. Fawns under 1 year of age will not be tested as this disease is less likely to be detected in young animals.

For more information on this program or to submit a sample from one of the sampling areas (see maps below), please call the NDMNRF wildlife health information line for rabies and chronic wasting disease at 1-888-574-6656.

Testing results to date

CWD surveillance has been on-going in Ontario since 2002. Over 13,600 samples have been tested since then and CWD has not been detected in any sample. However, we must remain vigilant, as CWD has been detected in Quebec, very close to the Ontario border, and has also been detected in all five U.S. states that share a border with Ontario.

Testing procedures

There are currently no live tests (e.g., blood test) available that can definitively diagnose CWD. At this time, CWD infection can only be confirmed by testing tissue from an animal after it is dead.

In selected regions during firearm hunts, roving crews of ministry wildlife research technicians visit hunt camps and request samples from harvested deer. The research technicians will ask the hunter’s permission to remove a small amount of tissue from the head area of the deer for analysis. The deer will then be returned to the hunter. Sampling will not prevent hunters from consuming the meat or having the head mounted (see Chronic wasting disease and human health section for more information).

We also need samples from archery hunters and firearms hunters who are not contacted by the roving crews. These hunters are asked to take the heads of yearling or older deer they harvest and deposit in one of the Ministry freezers (see 2021 testing and freezer locations). Freezer deposits must be made as soon as possible, preferably within 48 hours of harvest. If you cannot drop off your sample within 48 hours, you can freeze the head and bring it to the drop off depot frozen. Hunters will be asked to provide the date and location of the harvest as well as their contact information. (Note: If a hunter fails to provide complete information, the sample will not be tested.)

The first 500 hunters in each surveillance area who provide a tissue sample from a deer taken in a surveillance area will receive participation crest.

2021 testing and freezer locations

In 2021, NDMNRF will conduct chronic wasting disease monitoring in 2 Ontario regions:

• Southwestern Ontario: wildlife technicians will test deer harvested in wildlife management units: 85C, 86B, 87A, 87B, 87C, 87D, 87E, 90B, 91A, 91B, 92A and 92D.
• Eastern Ontario: In response to cases of chronic wasting disease detected on a farm in Quebec in 2018, comprehensive chronic wasting disease monitoring will also occur in wildlife management unit 65 in eastern Ontario.

Roving crews of ministry wildlife research technicians will visit hunt camps in the 2 target regions during the gun hunt to request samples from harvested deer. See testing procedures above for additional details. In addition, freezer depot locations will be available for hunters to submit samples for testing from October through December.

Please see the table below for a list of depots across Ontario. Continue to check the website for regular updates.

2021 sampling area, Southwestern Ontario

2021 sampling area, Eastern Ontario

Ontario depots

Southwestern Ontario depots

Name	Address	Phone	Hours
Mapleton Taxidermy	11664 Belmont Road, Belmont, Ontario	519-644-0168	By appointment
Elder Sales and Service	72521 Airport Line, RR 2 Hensall, Ontario	519-263-6142	Monday-Friday 8:00-17:00 Saturday 9:00-12:00
Wighty’s Repair	122 Huron Road, Hwy 8, Mitchell, Ontario	519-348-0404	Monday-Friday 8:00-17:00 Saturday 9:00-12:00
Les Drury	3972 Elginfield Road, Ailsa Craig, Ontario	519-671-1773	By appointment
Shooter’s Choice	631 Colby Drive, Waterloo, Ontario	519-746-8139	Tuesday-Friday 10:00-18:00 Saturday 10:00-17:00
White Tanning	5153 Eramosa & Erin Townline, Rockwood, Ontario	519-856-4240	Monday-Friday 7:00-16:00
Brian Moore	7-7015 Egremont Road, RR#8, Watford, Ontario	519-919-1520	By appointment

Eastern Ontario depots

Name	Address	Phone	Hours
André Hotte, Boucherie	2520 County Road 17, L’Orignal, Ontario	613-675-4719	Monday-Saturday 8:00-18:00
Clement Meat Cutter	1200 County Road 8, Casselman, Ontario	613-764-3072	Monday-Saturday 8:00-20:00 by appointment
Fence Depot and More	3045 Pitt Street, Cornwall, Ontario	613-932-0717	Monday-Friday 8:00-17:00 Saturday 9:00-14:00
Gillmore's Feed Barn	6844 Bank Street, Metcalfe, Ontario	613-821-0145	Monday to Friday 9:00 – 18:00 Saturday 9:00 – 17:00
Jamieson Campbell 1989 Ltd.	3465 Amelia Street, Monkland, Ontario	613-346-2044	Monday-Friday 8:00-17:00 Saturday 8:00-12:00
Matt Sullivan, Butcher	3359 County Road 8, Chesterville, Ontario	613-447-2847	By appointment
Pronature Rockland	2768 Laurier Street, Rockland, Ontario	613 419-1419	Monday-Wednesday, Friday 9:00-18:00 Thursday 9:00-20:00 Saturday 9:00-16:00
South Nation Archery Supply	11667 County Road 38, Winchester, Ontario	613 989-2943	Monday, Wednesday-Friday 13:00-21:00 Saturday 9:00-16:00
Vogel Fine Meat	4547 Glen Roy Road, Unit B, South Glengarry, Ontario	613 525-0393	Monday-Saturday 8:00-18:00

If you have a deer from a designated wildlife management unit you’d like to have sampled, but you are unable to submit it at a freezer location, please contact us.

Hunters can expect their deer samples to be tested within 2-8 weeks. Test results will be posted in the table below.

Test results

Explanation of results

CWD not detected

CWD was not detected in the sample

Sample not tested

It was not possible to test this sample or the sample was from outside of the surveillance zone

For more information on the NDMNRF surveillance program, or to receive copies of the previous year’s report, please contact us.

Chronic wasting disease and human health

There is currently no definitive scientific evidence to suggest that chronic wasting disease is transmissible to humans, and there have been no reported cases of CWD infection in humans.

As a precaution, public health officials including Health Canada and the World Health Organization recommend taking proper precautions when handling cervid carcasses and avoiding exposure to, and consumption of, CWD-infected animals.

Recent preliminary results of research using macaque monkeys (a species closely related to humans) showed that the animals developed CWD over time when fed muscle meat from CWD-infected deer that appeared healthy.

Handling wildlife carcasses

Although CWD has not been detected in wildlife in Ontario, as part of normal good practices when handling and processing Ontario deer, elk, and moose, it is suggested that hunters:

• wear latex or rubber gloves and eye protection when field dressing carcasses
• minimize the handling of brain, eyes, and spinal tissue as this is where the highest concentration of CWD prions, if present would be found
• minimize the handling of bones of the skull and spinal cord
• don’t consume the brain, spinal cord, eyes, spleen, tonsils or lymph nodes of harvested animals
• decontaminate your tools by soaking in a bleach solution (2 tablespoons of bleach for every 1 litre of water), then clean with hot, soapy water
• if you are hunting within a CWD surveillance zone, consider saving the head and submitting it for CWD testing (see Testing section)

Related

• Updates on emerging fish and wildlife diseases
• Wildlife research and monitoring
• Transporting live white-tailed deer, American elk, moose or woodland caribou into Ontario
• Natural resources science and research