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Chronic Wasting Disease (CWD) is an issue seen across the prairies with Saskatchewan's Ministry of Environment wanting to take a closer look at that.
As such they've been monitoring chronic wasting disease for decades, relying on hunters to report their findings in the field.
Dr. Iga Stasiak, a wildlife health specialist with the province, says that's more important with the disease growing in some regions.
"We've been monitoring chronic wasting disease since 1997 and the disease has continued to spread across the province. We are seeing increased rates across much of southern Saskatchewan and last year was no exception."
"The majority of our cases are in mule deer. We have in some areas of the province more than 50 per cent of our mule deer are infected. We have increasing rates in our white-tailed deer populations a little bit lower than the mule deer, so closer to around 10 to 15 per cent overall. We do see sporadic cases in elk and moose as well."
"It is a disease that has been here for 25 years and is continuing to spread and we're continuing to monitor it. We have our eye on working towards a management strategy for the province and trying to sort of mitigate the impacts of the disease, knowing that this is a population-limiting disease and it can impact our wildlife population."
Unlike other diseases which the ministry is monitoring Stasiak says that CWD doesn't pose a threat to most livestock.
"It only affects members of the deer family. So there are deer and elk that are kept as livestock, so it can impact those species, but it has not been detected and does not appear to be a risk factor for other domestic species such as cattle, horses, or pigs."
Stasiak says that staying aware of how the disease is moving is an important contribution hunters can make.
"We really ask hunters to participate by contacting us or the Canadian Wildlife Health Cooperative and submitting any animals that are found dead for testing, those could be reported to us, and we generally do work with the diagnostic lab at the university to have those tests. But you know, keep in mind that animals that appear healthy may also be infected with CWD and that's something hunters should be aware of as well."