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 Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources (WIDNR) are applying a systems approach to map and model the complex relationships among ecological, epidemiological, social, and political processes affecting CWD.
Why this matters: Historic and current CWD intervention efforts have often been hampered by social, economic, and political complexities. Using a systems-based approach, an innovative model is being developed (which includes these factors in addition to biology, epidemiology, and ecosystem health) that will allow managers to predict in real-time how these factors interact and identify management actions that will have the largest impact on CWD.
Through a participatory modeling process we gathered subject matter expertise on CWD epidemiology, social science, and deer and forest health through series of workshops. These data were then integrated with empirical data collected by the WIDNR on processes influencing CWD dynamics and management. Preliminary findings from the study suggest continued spread under a status quo management scenario and that a suite of intensive and prolonged management actions is likely needed to achieve stabilization or disease reduction in Wisconsin. However, some of the actions identified as effective are unavailable due to jurisdiction and resource constraints in Wisconsin. To make output from this model more accessible, we have recently completed a prototype management flight simulator (Figure 1) that will allow natural resource managers and stakeholders to visualize, in real time, both short- and long-term impacts of management decisions on deer population dynamics, disease processes, and stakeholders’ response to management. The model is intended to be extensible and USGS and Ventana’s future plans include incorporating management frameworks from other jurisdictions and affected cervid species.
Below are other science projects associated with this project.
Expanding Distribution of Chronic Wasting Disease
Assessing the Ability of Incineration to Inactivate CWD Prions from Carcasses
Advancing the Use of RT-QuIC for Applications in CWD Management
Chronic Wasting Disease
- Overview
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 Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources (WIDNR) are applying a systems approach to map and model the complex relationships among ecological, epidemiological, social, and political processes affecting CWD.
Why this matters: Historic and current CWD intervention efforts have often been hampered by social, economic, and political complexities. Using a systems-based approach, an innovative model is being developed (which includes these factors in addition to biology, epidemiology, and ecosystem health) that will allow managers to predict in real-time how these factors interact and identify management actions that will have the largest impact on CWD.
Through a participatory modeling process we gathered subject matter expertise on CWD epidemiology, social science, and deer and forest health through series of workshops. These data were then integrated with empirical data collected by the WIDNR on processes influencing CWD dynamics and management. Preliminary findings from the study suggest continued spread under a status quo management scenario and that a suite of intensive and prolonged management actions is likely needed to achieve stabilization or disease reduction in Wisconsin. However, some of the actions identified as effective are unavailable due to jurisdiction and resource constraints in Wisconsin. To make output from this model more accessible, we have recently completed a prototype management flight simulator (Figure 1) that will allow natural resource managers and stakeholders to visualize, in real time, both short- and long-term impacts of management decisions on deer population dynamics, disease processes, and stakeholders’ response to management. The model is intended to be extensible and USGS and Ventana’s future plans include incorporating management frameworks from other jurisdictions and affected cervid species.
Sources/Usage: Public Domain.Prototype of a management flight simulator being developed to explore and understand the complex relationships among factors that affect the ability to manage chronic wasting disease. - 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.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...Advancing the Use of RT-QuIC for Applications in CWD Management
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.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