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.
As charismatic megafauna of North America, declines to these populations caused by an infectious disease negatively impacts state economies and presents numerous challenges to the state and federal agencies charged with managing these species. To address this challenge, the National Wildlife Health Center (NWHC) is working to bring online added national capacity for conducting CWD diagnostics and for developing novel diagnostic tests needed by wildlife managers to more efficiently conduct CWD surveillance and assess the impacts of CWD management actions.
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
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
Diagnostic Services
- Overview
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.
As charismatic megafauna of North America, declines to these populations caused by an infectious disease negatively impacts state economies and presents numerous challenges to the state and federal agencies charged with managing these species. To address this challenge, the National Wildlife Health Center (NWHC) is working to bring online added national capacity for conducting CWD diagnostics and for developing novel diagnostic tests needed by wildlife managers to more efficiently conduct CWD surveillance and assess the impacts of CWD management actions.
Sources/Usage: Public Domain. Visit Media to see details.Mule deer. (Credit: Tom Koerner, Fish and Wildlife Service. Public domain.) - 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...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.Diagnostic Services
The USGS National Wildlife Health Center (NWHC) conducts laboratory investigations to determine the causes of wildlife mortality events, especially large-scale die-offs or those that are otherwise unusual. - Partners