The impacts of chronic wasting disease and its management on recreational hunters.

摘要

This paper examines the site choices of recreational deer hunters in context of changing levels of chronic wasting disease (CWD) and its management in Alberta. CWD is a prion disease that affects wild cervids and is found in Saskatchewan and Alberta. There are no known human health risks from CWD but the condition is fatal for cervids. The methodological approach employed utilizes both revealed and stated preference data collected from resident hunters using a computer-based survey. The results suggest that while hunting behavior is not significantly altered by current CWD levels and management programs, there would be some changes given higher prevalence and spread levels of the disease. To avoid a situation of high CWD spread and prevalence, hunters would be willing to pay on average $20.35 per trip to keep CWD at current levels. This translated into just under a million dollars of direct economic value. Although the estimate is not large compared to other provincial economic activities, when added up over a number of years the economic losses could be substantial.