A decision to cull an entire herd when Johne's disease was found to be in just three animals would not be unethical, says Ted Leighton, executive director of the Canadian Co-operative Wildlife Health Centre.

The health centre is based at the Western College of Veterinary Medicine in Saskatoon, where government sponsored testing was done on four culled reindeer from the Northern Splendor Reindeer Farm owned by Stella and Tim Gregory.

Fifty two were shot and four calves were bludgeoned to death on May 21, after government test results showed three of the animals tested positive for mycobacterium avium paratuberculosis, or the chronic wasting disease known as Johne's.

Stella has described the event as a heartless and needless slaughter, for which there remains no evidence to substantiate the need to so such a thing. It was a horrible act that over several hours involved reindeer bawling and running about, terrified by gunshots and the smell of blood curdling the air, according to Stella.

It was nothing more, she insists, than a shell game by the Yukon government to find a quick way to deal with a political issue that was weighing heavy around the Yukon Party's neck.

The destruction of the reindeer herd played a prominent role in last week's question periods.

NDP Leader Todd Hardy spent Wednesday and Thursday asking questions about the herd with a follow-up question on Monday.

He argued proper procedures had not been followed in the elimination of the herd and the animals had not been infected with the disease as the government claimed.

Mycobacterium avium paratuberculosis and mycobacterium paratuberculosis were not the same disease, he said.

'This antigen is closely related to the bacterium that causes Johne's disease, but it is not Johne's disease itself,' he said.

However, Leighton told the Star they are one and the same - only the scientific terminology has changed recently.

The reindeer were seized by the government from the Gregorys' farm in late March 2005 and were relocated to a pen at Mile 10 of the Mayo Road.

The Gregorys and the government fell out of grace with each other two years ago when the Yukon Act was amended and provisions for trade in reindeer were not provided for. The Gregorys were unable to obtain any permits for the sale of animals.

The government initially agreed to provide food for the animals.

Former Environment minister Peter Jenkins told the house last week the government had been trying to find a new home for the animals in the Northwest Territories or Alberta, but first needed to have the herd certified as healthy.

After tests came back showing the tested animals had Johne's, the Yukon government was unable to place them in a new home, said Jenkins. He told the house with the Gregorys indicating they were considering opening the pen's gates to allow the animals to graze at the risk of infecting other wildlife, the government had to take action.

'We had a serious situation with diseased animals. All the appropriate regulations were followed,' Jenkins said.

'It is with regret that we had to take the steps that were taken, but this herd of reindeer were to be released into the wild. They came into the care of the Department of Environment officials and were subsequently dealt with in the appropriate manner, as determined by a federal health inspector.'

Leighton said determining if Johne's disease should be approached with an attempt to eliminate it from the herd, or culling the entire herd, is a 'judgment depending on circumstances.'

According to documents tabled by the NDP, 'Johne's disease can be controlled in infected herds but eradication is costly and time consuming (taking 6-10 years).'

Another document tabled by the party goes on to add: 'Johne's disease should be viewed as a herd problem, not an individual animal problem. Control of the disease should be to minimize the spread.'

'These animals lived with us for 18 years. If these animals had any disease, we would have known about it,' Stella Gregory told the Star recently.

Gregory felt so sure the animals were not sick, after the cull she collected four fecal samples and sent them to the Animal Health Monitoring Lab in British Columbia for testing.

'I've tabled evidence that proves these animals did not have Johne's disease,' Hardy said as he submitted the test results to the house.

The tests results show 'No mycobacterium paratuberculosis' was found in the samples.

However, Letitia Curley, lab manager of the Animal Health Monitoring Lab, said in testing for Johne's disease, finding no positive signs does not necessarily mean the results are negative.

'It says the organism is not found,' she said. 'The lab never calls it negative.'

Due to the nature of Johne's disease and inadequacies in the testing process, it is often a challenge to detect the disease, she said.

'It's the second slowest growing organism in the world. That's what leads to so much trouble diagnosing it.'

The disease can be in an animal from its birth and not show signs until the animal is up to six years old, she said.

In the documents tabled by the NDP, experts suggest in some instances it can be up to 15 years before there are visible, clinical signs of the disease in an animal. Also, only one in 25 animals show clinical signs, the documents say.

Curley added the PCR test, which was used in the tests for the government, look for the disease's organism at a DNA level and are quickly becoming the most accurate method of detecting Johne's.

It is also a much quicker method, usually having a three to four day turn around, she said, adding the BACTEC culture method that looks at feces is used by her lab and can take up to 16 weeks.

She said she wouldn't necessarily recommend culling an entire herd if a positive result was found in a few animals.

'Usually they do a heck of a lot more testing,' she said.

However, she agreed with Leighton, saying the decision to do the testing would be a 'matter of economics. It would be so expensive.'

'When you're trying to clean it out of a herd, you're screwed,' she said.

The process of containing the disease involves testing the entire herd, keeping calves in isolation, not spreading manure on pastures and immediately culling all animals found with the disease.

'If you diagnose one, it's likely in the whole herd,' she said.

When the results come back showing the disease is not found, more testing is usually recommended, she said.

The nature of the disease and when a herd is well managed and well cared for often means the visible signs of Johne's are not necessarily there, though it can still have infected the animals, she said.

'All the appropriate actions were followed and taken. What we had here was a herd of reindeer that was carrying disease. It was more than one reindeer,' Jenkins told the house.

'The government ran the reindeer through a series of tests; that series of tests determined that the reindeer were diseased, and subsequently, after all the appropriate individuals were contacted and the appropriate contacts were made with veterinarians and the Canadian Food Inspection Agency vet, the herd was culled.'

Though it was a departmental decision to cull the herd, it was Jenkins and Energy, Mines and Resources Minister Archie Lang who gave the ministerial go-ahead, said Dennis Senger, Department of the Environment's spokesperson.

There was no document signed, because the Department of Justice advised no 'piece of paper' was needed, said Senger.

Hardy indicated in the legislative assembly that Jenkins was losing credibility in his explanations surrounding the elimination of the herd.

He asked for the minister's resignation, which ironically happened on Monday on unrelated matters.

Hardy also demanded the herd be exhumed for further testing and a public inquiry be held on the events surrounding the cull.

'One of the things we're hopefully going to achieve is accountability. Even accountability is never going to bring the reindeer back,' Gregory told the Star . 'What these men did on May 21, 2005 was not humane in the least way.'

Gregory said she feels the decision to cull the reindeer was related to her past disagreement with the Yukon government.

Hardy agreed. 'I think it was a political decision,' he said, indicating he would like to see all documentation regarding the testing and who ordered the cull.

The government did table e-mails and letters from May 18-20, 2005 indicating several recommendations that the herd be culled.

'The tests were done that confirmed that the reindeer were diseased. Further to that, the recommendation from the vets was to cull the herd. Regrettably, that was undertaken and done,' said Jenkins.