SASKATCHEWAN (CBC) - The federal government has failed to protect deer and bison from the spread of chronic wasting disease and tuberculosis, the head of a Saskatoon-based wildlife health centre says.

Ottawa has a national animal health strategy, hammered out about three years ago, that could keep disease that has plagued deer and bison populations in recent years in check, but it has never been implemented, Ted Leighton, the executive director of the Canadian Cooperative Wildlife Health Centre, told CBC News.

Under the strategy, Ottawa and the provinces agreed to a national surveillance program aimed at detecting diseases earlier and improving response, he said.

But it has never been put into play, he said.

"When the diseased animal is a wild animal, there's no clear-cut legal structure for deciding who is responsible for that, whether we have a problem that needs addressing or not, and if so, which department, which level of government, should take the lead, and who should pay," Leighton said.

The result is that nobody takes responsibility and nothing gets done, he said.

The strategy could work well, as was discovered when it was tried with B.C.'s avian influenza problem several years ago, but it would need between $16 million and $20 million a year to be effective, he said.

The strategy also includes an action plan to deal with established wildlife diseases, he said.

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