Management board urges hunters to watch for parasites in harvested caribou

The Beverly and Qamanirjuaq Caribou Management Board is urging hunters to inspect harvested caribou for parasites and report their findings, as photos of infected meat in the N.W.T. have been circulating online. 

The discovery matches the findings of a biologist studying parasites in caribou, who says there has been an increase since 2023. It is also raising concerns for a traditional land user who worries the situation could worsen and impact harvesters reliance on traditional foods.

According to a Facebook post in early April, a hunter wrote that 16 out of 21 caribou he harvested near Rennie Lake, N.W.T., had what appeared be the parasites.

The Beverly and Qamanirjuaq Caribou Management Board wrote a separate post on Facebook about the issue last week, with its own photos.

The animals are believed to be from the Beverly or Qamanirjuaq herds, major barren-ground caribou herds that migrate between Nunavut and the Northwest Territories.

'It's something new'

Earl Evans, a long-time hunter, trapper and traditional land user in Fort Smith, said the parasite is called setaria, which lives in the body cavity of hoofed mammals.

Evans has worked closely with veterinarians and researchers conducting caribou sampling across the North. Although he hasn't seen the parasites in any animal he has skinned, he said he has been hearing about them for the last several years, when researchers in Nunavut first noticed them in a small number of animals.

"[People] up by Délı̨nę are finding them too. And the people in Kugluktuk, the people in North Saskatchewan and Northwest Territories up towards the ice road. So it seems like it's right across all the caribou herds," he said.

"It's something new, and it's something that's getting to be more and more prevalent in these herds."

If something like this gets out of control, it could have major consequences.- Earl Evans, hunter and trapper in Fort Smith

Evans is also concerned about the number of animals that were infected. He said he has worked on sample counts with researchers, where they shot as many as 35 and even up to 150 caribou on some trips. He said they would see approximately one caribou out of 10 with a minor parasite.

"16 out of 21 were infected. And that's very, extremely high," he said about this particular case. "To have this many out of a small sample size like that is quite alarming."

Whether or not infected meat is edible depends on several factors, Evans said — like the number of parasites present, their location within the animal, and whether the parasite is showing signs of inflammation or degradation.

He said hunters should take photos and GPS co-ordinates if they encounter an infected animal and report it to authorities.

Evans also wants to see more education for hunters. He would like to see more workshops offered in communities to educate people on what to look for and how to safely handle meat from infected animals.

"You get these people that are cutting legs off caribou and taking backstraps and leaving it," he said. "They would not have a clue whether that caribou was infected or not, because they don't see the inside of it. So they could be eating that meat," he said.

"If something like this gets out of control, it could have major consequences."

An increase in parasites found in caribou since 2023

Dr. Susan Kutz is a veterinary parasitologist and was a founding member of the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine at the University of Calgary. She has also collaborated with Indigenous hunters in the North to monitor animal health for the past 20 years.

Kutz and her team have been monitoring setaria with the Kugluktuk Hunters and Trappers Organization since 2023, when it was first reported by hunters in that region.

"We followed up on those cases, and that was the first diagnosis of this parasite causing disease in caribou in Canada," she said.

There has been a rise in reports of parasites since then. She said the parasite is transmitted by mosquitoes, where it migrates through the caribou's abdomen, causing inflammation and visible damage.

Although it may appear alarming, she said the parasites do not pose a risk to human health, and in most cases, the meat is still safe to eat if the affected areas are removed. 

"It's something new that harvesters have not seen before, and it can look pretty horrible," she said. "I can guarantee that nobody would pick up a steak at a store that looked like that."

Kutz said they are now investigating the extent of the issue, its impact on caribou health, food safety concerns, and why the parasite is emerging now, although she said it has probably been present in caribou in low numbers for a long time.

"As far as the early 2000s, [we looked at] blood samples that had been archived, and we found evidence of the worm in those blood samples at that time."

What they do know is that two main climate change factors are contributing to the spread of setaria. Longer summer seasons allow mosquitoes to spread the parasites to more caribou, and warmer temperatures, which speed up the worm's development inside mosquitoes, make transmission faster. 

"We hear throughout the North of people talking about there being more mosquitoes, more black flies," she said. "Places that didn't previously have [them], so they're increasing up there."

"We're certainly going to see it stick around and probably expand its range even further North."

Kutz said another major concern is that the parasite puts stress on the animals' immune systems and could have long-term effects on herd health, particularly during harsh winters. It may not kill them outright, but the energy drain may affect their survival or the ability to carry calves.