The Yukon must not mess around with the winter tick infesting the Yukon's elk, says a career biologist.

Grant Lortie said to do nothing, to stand by and waffle with indecision, only increases the risk of the tick spreading to and devastating the moose and caribou populations.

If Lortie had his preference, he'd kill the 200-plus elk occupying the Takhini River Valley and Braeburn areas.

The animals are not natural to the Yukon, and do not do well here, he said in an interview Tuesday.

If it wasn't for additional transplants to prop up the herd following the original transplant in 1951, it would be in poor shape, if not non-existent, Lortie suggested.

Before Yukoners get too far down the road with the development and implementation of an elk management plan, he said, there needs to be a complete assessment of the risk winter ticks pose to the territory's natural populations.

There is no sense in spending piles of money developing and implementing a management plan for the elk if, in the end, the wisest course of action is to eradicate the herd, he said.

Lortie said the Yukon has so far been lucky there's no evidence of the elk spreading the tick to the moose or caribou populations. But it's only a matter of time, he said.

When it does spread, Lortie warned, the Yukon's moose and caribou populations will pay the price.

The Department of Environment, he said, needs to quickly complete a full assessment to describe the full scope and depth of the problem the Yukon faces with the infestation.

There's no question in the biologist's mind that time is of the essence.

Cutting to the chase, Lortie acknowledges he would be moving right away to kill the elk, to remove the problem and any chance of transmitting the bug to moose and caribou.

He would hope the government is in a position to act with a plan, whatever that may be, no more than a year from now.

'I think after a year of assessment work on this problem, this winter tick problem, some hard decisions have to be made.'

The Yukon government and the Yukon Fish and Wildlife Management Board are currently working with a draft plan for the long-term management for the elk, which are protected from hunting.

The management plan comes as the numbers of wild elk showing up along Yukon highways and in farmers' fields is increasing. Among the management recommedations is a limited annual harvest.

The severity of the winter tick infestation was documented late last winter when wildlife officials were in the field putting radio collars on elk, in an effort to learn more about their habits and movement to help forumlate the management plan.

A handful of elk infested with winter tick were transplanted to the Yukon in 1991, though wildlife officials were not concerned about the potential for spread.

Of the 18 elk fitted with collars last winter, all 18 carried the winter tick.

When Yukon wildlife officials announced their findings last April, they noted winter ticks are not often fatal for elk, but can be for moose.

Lortie, however, insists it would be much wiser to invest the wildlife management funds in the Yukon's natural populations, rather than on a transplanted elk population which is now threatening those natural populations.

Dr. Bill Samuel of the University of Alberta said today that culling the Takhini and Braeburn herds would be a drastic measure. It may be, however, the correct measure in the short-term, he said in an interview.

Samuel said an elk cull is probably one of the options being weighed by the territory's wildlife officials.

But the research scientist who is recognized for his work with winter ticks recommends before such a drastic measure its taken, the wildlife officials make sure the local moose and caribou populations aren't already infected.

Otherwise, the elk cull would be for nothing, he said.

Samuel, who is retired but maintains a research position with the university, pointed out that in the late 1980s or early 1990s, he conducted a survey among licensed trappers in northern B.C. and southern Yukon.

Using photographs of moose suffering from the typical hair loss caused by the winter ticks, trappers were asked if they'd seen any moose with similar hair-loss conditions, he explained.

Nine trappers and later one research student working west of Kluane Lake reported seeing moose with similar conditions, Samuel said.

He said one survey response, if he remembered correctly, reported seeing a moose with hair loss as far north as the 62nd parallel, the same parallel that Carmacks and Ross River are situated on.

The survey results do not provide conclusive proof, he said.

What Samuel does know is that in northern Alberta, the winter tick does very well on moose all the way up to the Northwest Territories border.

The Peace River Country of B.C. and Alberta of Fort St. John, Grande Prairie is the North American capital for the winter tick, and it's not all that far from the Yukon, Samuel pointed out.

He said one should know before any drastic decisions are made if the ticks are already in the Yukon naturally with the warmer winters, or what the likelihood is of them arriving soon on their own.

The blood-sucking tick causes the infected animals to itch and rub in late winter and early spring, causing hair loss and loss of body heat, on top of what can be substantial blood loss.

And animals can become preoccuppied with rubbing instead of regular feeding, further compounding the problem with blood loss and additional exposure to the weather elements.

Winter ticks, said Samuel, can be devastating to moose and caribou populations.

In the harsh winter of 1998-99, for instance, 50 to 70 per cent of the moose population in the Peace River country was killed off because of the ticks, Samuel said.

The professor said in the short-term, if Yukon moose and caribou are currently free of the winter tick, one must ask how much value is placed on the elk, compared to the moose and caribou.

As he understands it, there is great value placed on the moose and elk.

Killing off the wild elk, he acknowledged, may be the preferred option.

Premier Dennis Fentie said in an interview this morning there'll be an announcement soon regarding how the government intends to move on the elk and winter tick situation.

'The government is really concerned about this matter, really concerned,' said Fentie, who doubles as the Minister of Environment.

'The Department of the Environment and its biologists who hold the expertise in this field have been doing their work and we are going to be coming out with some options on how we are going to deal with or manage this herd.

'What we will do will be announced shortly,' he said, though he did not want to say when Yukoners could expect the announcement.

The premier said before a plan can be finalized, the department needs to consult with the first nations affected.

Department biologist Rick Ward said this morning there is a plan to provide the elk with medication through feed this winter to kill the tick and minimize the chance of it spreading any further while a management plan is being developed.

The department, said Ward, wants to ensure whatever is decided has been well-thought-out.

'What we don't want to do is have some knee-jerk reaction and go down the path that is not in the best interest, first of all, of our native species, and in the interest of the elk as well.'

Lortie said options to killing the elk outright like providing medication by whatever means through a feeding method or outright capture or quarantine is that they are not bullet-proof, and they are expensive.

The cost of medicating the herd, for example, must be weighed against the likelihood of medicating all the animals, he said.

If not all are medicated, asked Lortie, can the expense be justified when the likelihood is high that those elk which are medicated will simply be re-infested?

The winter tick does not move from animal to animal.

Rather, the adult female completes its blood meal on the animal in the spring months, drops to the ground and lays its eggs.

The baby nymph hatch in the summer months, then climb up on grasses and brush. As the next elk, deer, moose or caribou walks by, it attaches onto the animal, and the cycle begins again.