Ferme de wapitis en Alberta au bord de la faillite

[Animal 0]

Je ferai un petit résumé en français pour notre bulletin.... ----------------------------------------------------------------


Elk Farms in Alberta on verge of collapse.

August 18, 2005
Broadcast News

GRANDE PRAIRIE, Alberta -- Alberta's once multimillion-dollar elk industry is,
according to this story, on the verge of complete collapse.

Producers have been faced with a 90 per cent drop in the price of velvet antler
and breeding animals over the last five years.

Elk ranchers are rattling horns with bankruptcy or having to heavily subsidize
money-losing elk operations.

Due to disease scares and border closures, the price of a top-notch breeding
animal has fallen from 40-thousand to 500 dollars and velvet antlers from 120 to
12 dollars per pound.

The most devastating blow to the industry came in December 2000 when Korea shut
its borders to all North American elk velvet antler products after chronic
wasting disease was discovered on Saskatchewan elk farms.

The Korean antler ban, combined with China's subsequent ban in 2003, cost the
Canadian elk industry its two largest customers and 30 (m) million dollars in
annual sales.
top