Dead bison in Wood Buffalo National Park tested for anthrax

Parks Canada staff at Wood Buffalo National Park are awaiting test results for a bison found dead at Pine Lake last weekend.

The adult female bisonwas found dead on the beach. A field test for anthrax done on the animal at the scene was negative, but officials are doing more tests.

Anthrax is an infectious disease that can kill bison or cattle within two days of contracting it.

"This field test came back negative, however it isn't 100 per cent accurate, so we also took samples that we send off to a lab to get a very accurate result as to whether anthrax is the cause of death," saidStuart Macmillan with Parks Canada.

Macmillan says the animal did not show one of the classic signs of anthrax death legs splayed out straight.

The lab test results are expected later this week or early next week. The dead bison was transported to a remote area of the park in a helicopter sling.

Three years ago, an anthrax outbreak killed more than 400 bison in the Mackenzie Bison Sanctuary near Fort Providence, N.W.T.