Chronic wasting disease of deer and elk
Name change
2020-01-01: The Canadian Food Inspection Agency's Chronic Wasting Disease Voluntary Herd Certification Program (CWD-VHCP) is now known as the Chronic Wasting Disease Herd Certification Program (CWD-HCP). Any reference to the VHCP in the following documents may be replaced with CWD-HCP.
Chronic Wasting Disease (CWD) is a progressive, fatal nervous system disease that affects these animals, which are all part of the deer family known as cervids. It is a transmissible spongiform encephalopathy, or prion disease. It is contagious amongst cervids, like scrapie in sheep. There has been no known transmission of CWD to humans, however, bovine spongiform encephalopathy (also known as mad cow disease) in cattle has been known to cause Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease in humans.
In Canada, CWD is a reportable disease under the Health of Animals Act, and all cases must be reported to the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA).
Information for cervid producers
- Fact sheet: what producers should know
- Herd certification
- Herds infected with chronic wasting disease in Canada
- What to expect if your animals may be infected
- Prion disease information
- Live animal testing for chronic wasting disease
Information for consumers
Information for hunters
- Fact sheet: what hunters should know
- Fact sheet: chronic wasting disease and traditional foods
- Alberta
- British Columbia
- Manitoba
- Northwest Territories – PDF (704 kb)
- Ontario
- Quebec (French only)
- Saskatchewan
- Yukon
Notices
- 2019-03-15 – Updates to the federal management of chronic wasting disease in farmed cervids
- 2017-12-12 – Updates to the federal management of chronic wasting disease in farmed cervids
- Date modified: