Deadly deer disease may have spread in B.C.

The Canadian Food Inspection Agency is testing a sample taken from a deer shot by a hunter in the Okanagan that may have chronic wasting disease.

On Monday, the B.C. Ministry of Water, Land and Resource Stewardship revealed the male white-tailed deer had been shot east of Enderby and an initial test indicated it could have contracted the infectious and deadly disease.

Conclusive testing must be done by the CFIA, with results expected next week.

B.C. hunters are encouraged to provide samples for testing from thin deer, elk and moose as part of the province’s chronic wasting disease mitigation program.

“This is the first potential detection in the Okanagan and the first identified outside B.C.’s existing CWD management zone in the Kootenay region,” the ministry said.

There have been six