Chronic wasting disease (CWD) is an emerging infectious disease that is fatal to free-ranging and captive animals in Cervidae, the deer family. The development of the real-time quaking-induced conversion (RT-QuIC) assay has the potential to transform laboratory research of prions and provide new opportunities for improved surveillance and management.
However, the widespread application of RT-QuIC has been hampered by 1) the lack of well-characterized reference samples to ensure proper assay functioning, identify optimal tissues for ante-mortem sampling, and determine biological relevance of results and 2) the absence of an appropriate modeling framework to leverage the information produced by RT-QuIC. In collaboration with the University of Wisconsin, state and federal partners, the USGS National Wildlife Health Center (NWHC) is working to fill these gaps by using RT-QuIC to fully characterize a range of biological tissues, body fluids, and excreta that are CWD-positive and -negative and comparing those results against the gold standard animal bioassay (a transgenic mouse bioassay). NWHC is also building a modeling framework that will help managers determine appropriate control strategies by assessing the relative importance of environmental transmission, as measured by RT-QuIC, in CWD dynamics. The availability of reference samples and a robust modeling framework for CWD diagnostic labs and managers will help promote the rigorous application of RT-QuIC, identify optimal tissues for ante-mortem sampling, assess biological relevancy of findings, and provide a mechanism to leverage RT-QuIC information to aid CWD control efforts.
Below are other science projects associated with this project.
Expanding Distribution of Chronic Wasting Disease
Application of a systems approach for management of chronic wasting disease
Enhanced Capacity for Chronic Wasting Disease Research and Certified Diagnostics at the USGS National Wildlife Health Center
Assessing the Ability of Incineration to Inactivate CWD Prions from Carcasses
Chronic Wasting Disease
- Overview
Chronic wasting disease (CWD) is an emerging infectious disease that is fatal to free-ranging and captive animals in Cervidae, the deer family. The development of the real-time quaking-induced conversion (RT-QuIC) assay has the potential to transform laboratory research of prions and provide new opportunities for improved surveillance and management.
Sources/Usage: Public Domain.A white-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus) fawn taking refuge in the vegetation. (Credit: Daniel Walsh, USGS. Public domain.) However, the widespread application of RT-QuIC has been hampered by 1) the lack of well-characterized reference samples to ensure proper assay functioning, identify optimal tissues for ante-mortem sampling, and determine biological relevance of results and 2) the absence of an appropriate modeling framework to leverage the information produced by RT-QuIC. In collaboration with the University of Wisconsin, state and federal partners, the USGS National Wildlife Health Center (NWHC) is working to fill these gaps by using RT-QuIC to fully characterize a range of biological tissues, body fluids, and excreta that are CWD-positive and -negative and comparing those results against the gold standard animal bioassay (a transgenic mouse bioassay). NWHC is also building a modeling framework that will help managers determine appropriate control strategies by assessing the relative importance of environmental transmission, as measured by RT-QuIC, in CWD dynamics. The availability of reference samples and a robust modeling framework for CWD diagnostic labs and managers will help promote the rigorous application of RT-QuIC, identify optimal tissues for ante-mortem sampling, assess biological relevancy of findings, and provide a mechanism to leverage RT-QuIC information to aid CWD control efforts.
- Science
Below are other science projects associated with this project.
Expanding Distribution of Chronic Wasting Disease
Chronic wasting disease (CWD) has been detected in 31 US states and four Canadian provinces in free-ranging cervids and/or commercial captive cervid facilities. CWD has been detected in free-ranging cervids in 31 states and three provinces and in captive cervid facilities in 18 states and three provinces.Application of a systems approach for management of chronic wasting disease
Managing chronic wasting disease (CWD) involves more than understanding the ecology of the disease. It includes complex relationships among social, economic, and political factors that affect intervention opportunities, consequences for stakeholders, and ultimately disease outcomes. The USGS National Wildlife Health Center, Montana Cooperative Wildlife Research Unit, Ventana Systems, Inc., and the...Enhanced Capacity for Chronic Wasting Disease Research and Certified Diagnostics at the USGS National Wildlife Health Center
Chronic wasting disease (CWD) is a fatal disease that impacts populations of deer, elk, moose, and other cervid species caused by an infectious protein called a prion.Assessing the Ability of Incineration to Inactivate CWD Prions from Carcasses
Chronic wasting disease (CWD), a fatal neurologic disease of cervids, presents a monumental management challenge, in part because the etiological agent, an infectious prion, is extremely difficult to inactivate and can be transmitted directly or indirectly to hosts. Due to these attributes of prions, proper disposal of CWD-infected carcasses is an important consideration for management agencies to...Chronic Wasting Disease
Chronic wasting disease (CWD) is an emerging infectious disease that is fatal to free-ranging and captive animals in Cervidae, the deer family. CWD is one member of a family of diseases called transmissible spongiform encephalopathies (TSEs), and is thought to be caused by prions. CWD is the only TSE known to affect free-ranging wildlife. - Partners