Learning from outbreaks of bovine tuberculosis near Riding Mountain National Park: applications to a foreign animal disease outbreak

Riding Mountain National Park, Manitoba, is home to a population of free-roaming elk (Cervus elaphus manitobensis) that have been found to be infected with Mycobacterium bovis, the agent of bovine tuberculosis (TB). The disease has also been found in a number of cattle herds near the Park and, as a result, Manitoba has been assigned a split status for bovine TB. A number of government agencies, with input from representatives from the wildlife and agricultural sectors, have responded by devising a program to detect, investigate, control, eradicate, and prevent TB in both wild and domestic animals. Experience from these efforts can be applied to the control of other diseases, such a foreign animal disease, elsewhere in Canada.