A Syncrude news and community update

Vets round up research on bison

Animals at the Beaver Creek Wood Bison Ranch are contributing to a study on how best to preserve the threatened wood bison species.

Some people collect stamps. Others collect coins, bottle caps or hockey cards. Doug Whiteside, well, he collects something else altogether. What he collects, however, could help save an entire species. Not even a mint-condition Gretzky rookie card can do that.

Doug, a staff veterinarian at the Calgary Zoo Animal Health Centre, was one of several visitors who came up to Fort McMurray last November for the annual Beaver Creek Wood Bison Ranch round-up.

He was a man on a mission.

“The purpose of our expedition was to collect live semen from bulls to compare its characteristics and fertilizing ability with those collected previously from dead bulls and with frozen samples,” says Doug, who has been involved in groundbreaking research in developing test tube embryos with Jacob Thundathil at the University of Calgary. “We also wanted to get acquainted with the Syncrude herd. We were impressed. The facilities and the people were very, very professional. The state-of-the-art handling facility allowed us to get the animals in and out in a relatively stress-free fashion, and it was a very positive experience.”

The research was part of an ongoing endeavour to help create a sustainable future for wood bison with an ultimate goal of producing disease-free wood bison calves through artificial insemination or by the transfer of fresh and frozen embryos.

Testes and ovaries from wood bison sent to slaughter can be salvaged, and eggs can be extracted and fertilized with salvaged sperm in a culture dish to create embryos.

Once collected, sperm samples are frozen in liquid nitrogen in a process known as cryopreservation. Sometimes described as “frozen zoos,” these collections of genetic material have been used to preserve a number of animals including gorillas and exotic cats.

The research is critical to the future of wood bison since the species has been plagued by disease. Bovine tuberculosis is an often-fatal chronic respiratory disease, and brucellosis causes spontaneous abortions and stillbirths. Both conditions have ravaged herds in other areas although the Beaver Creek herd has never experienced those problems.

There used to be about 200,000 wood bison, and now there are about 8,000 animals, according to Environment Canada. Although the status of wood bison has been upgraded from endangered to threatened, genetic preservation of the animals is crucial.

That’s why Brad Ramstead, a wildlife biologist who oversees the Beaver Creek Ranch for Fort McKay Environment LP, and the rest of his team were eager to assist the visiting veterinarians, including Doug, Jacob and Westlock veterinarian Roy Lewis. “We always try to assist researchers in any way we can, and it was a fascinating learning experience,” says Brad. “Our herd has an excellent reputation and people know how diligent we are with our record-keeping, so it’s usually a positive experience for everyone involved. This herd, thanks to the work we have done in the past, has now become a major source of wood bison genetics and is viewed by researchers and producers alike as world class.”

The award-winning Beaver Creek herd is co-managed by Syncrude and the Fort McKay First Nation. It averages around 300 head, and enjoys exceptional health thanks to the efforts of the on-site team.

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