Kivalliq hunters report ‘sickly’ caribou during fall hunt
Yellowish tinge, white spots in ribcage almost definitely caused by benign parasite, says biologist
Hunters and biologists met Wednesday for a Nunavut Wildlife Management Board meeting in Arviat. (Screen shot courtesy of Nunavut Wildlife Management Board)
Kivalliq hunters may soon receive tissue-sampling kits from the territorial government following reports from the region that this year’s caribou harvest doesn’t look healthy.
“Most of the caribou harvested now are sick inside the rib cage — all these white spots, yellow sticky stuff — the joints are all yellow,” said Philip Putumiraqtuq of Baker Lake, who represents the Kivalliq Inuit Association.
He spoke Wednesday during a regular meeting of the Nunavut Wildlife Management Board in Arviat.
The hunters and biologists agreed on the need to reboot the Nunavut government’s tissue-sample kit distribution program in response to the report. The testing program has largely fallen by the wayside while the Department of Environment was without a wildlife technician for four years.
“Then [COVID-19] hit,” said Mitch Campbell, Kivalliq wildlife biologist with the department.
“I know it sounds like a lot of excuses, but running those programs is fairly labour intensive.”
Campbell assured those at the meeting that the unusual-looking caribou likely have a parasite that poses no threat to the animals or people who consume them.
The main culprit, he said, is a nematode.
“One of the things that’s really going on here that’s fairly new since I started working in Nunavut in ’97 is this white and green colour on the inside of the rib cage and on the stomach lining and on top of the fat,” he said during the meeting.
Wildlife officers have sent samples for testing that confirmed the off-putting colours are related to a benign infection. Sometimes it’s possible to find the long, worm-like nematodes inside the caribou gut cavity or within the shiny connective tissue between muscle bundles.
“It doesn’t hurt the caribou and it’s not harmful to people. It’s just not nice to look at,” Campbell said.
The nematode, more commonly seen in moose and deer, was likely contracted by the herd during a recent season when they dipped down into northern Manitoba. They then brought it back north, the biologist said.
But another caribou affliction, which manifests as yellowness in the joints, could be related to a bacterial infection called brucellosis, which is very harmful to humans.
People can become sick if they come into direct contact with brucellosis bacteria while butchering an infected caribou, according to an information sheet from the Department of Environment.
It can pass through cuts in the skin, when touching eyes, nose or mouth after handling infected meat, or through eating infected meat that’s raw, frozen, undercooked or dried.
A person sick with a brucellosis infection might experience general flu symptoms at first, but left untreated it can cause paralysis or death.
“We don’t want people sampling [brucellosis] because it could put them at risk,” Campbell said.
“It’s not common. We’ve tested a lot for that and we haven’t found a lot.”
He added hunters should avoid sampling the joints of any sickly looking caribou and sample tissue from the animal’s ribcage instead.
Campbell estimated the caribou sickness is “98 per cent” related to the nematode that seems to be going through the population. He added it’s showing up in the Kitikmeot Region as well.
As the nematode makes its way through the Nunavut caribou population, hunters will see it less and less, he said.
“Would you guys start informing Inuit about this kind of thing — illness that’s happening,” Putumiraqtuq asked.
Communication is key, Campbell agreed.
He said the Department of Environment is planning to redistribute the sampling kits this year in an effort to track the nematode’s spread through the herd.
In the meantime, caribou samples can still be brought to the department or a hunter can summon a wildlife officer to a kill site for analysis, Campbell said.
Wonder how many “sick” tuktu were wasted out on the land because the symptoms and harmlessness of nematodes was never communicated…
With all the reports on sick Caribou and impacts from the Mining camps, Exploration camps its time the GN and KIA work more closely with local HTO’s and Hunters in all communities to provide Data and provide notifications and better info on what precautions to take.
He says it’s edible. I would dare say when he goes to the store and buys meat and there is yellowish sticky stuff on it, he would not eat it or feed it to his family. It’s about time the GN starts looking at sampling caribou. Kind of late in the game. Excuses and more excuses from the GN.
It would be handy for hunters to have a rapid antigen test they could use for harvested tuktu out on the land to check for brucellosis (and other nasty stuff) in blood within a few minutes. There seem to be a few products like that available online, although someone with expertise in antigen testing efficacy would need to evaluate options for the conditions of use. For example, something like this: https://www.immunoshop.com/brucella-rapid
Dry season. Hunters. Predators. These three are the reason we have bad caribou in numbers and health. Nothing more or less.
Brucellosis I believe it is. We had that disease before the Baffin caribou population crashed.
Baffin mostly, do not buy this year from ARV & Baker hunters. Those needing money do NOT care the condition of the meat……