Input for Habitat Risk Software

Chronic wasting disease (CWD) is a transmissible spongiform encephalopathy that was first detected in captive cervids in Colorado, United States (US) in 1967, but has since spread into free-ranging white-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus) populations across the US and Canada. In some areas, the disease is considered endemic in wild deer populations, and governmental wildlife agencies have employed epidemiological models to understand long-term environmental risk. However, continued rapid spread of CWD into new regions of the continent has underscored the need for extension of these models into broader tools applicable for wide use by wildlife agencies. Additionally, efforts to semi-automate models will facilitate access of technical scientific methods to broader audiences. We introduce software (Habitat Risk) designed to link a previously published epidemiological model with spatially referenced environmental and disease testing data enabling agency personnel to make up-to-date, localized, data-driven predictions regarding the odds of CWD detection in surrounding areas after an outbreak is discovered. Habitat Risk requires pre-processing publicly available environmental datasets and standardization of disease testing (surveillance) data, after which an autonomous computational workflow terminates in a user interface that displays an interactive map of disease risk. We demonstrated the use of the Habitat Risk software with surveillance data of white-tailed deer from Tennessee, US. This data release includes the data inputs necessary to run the 1st script of the Habitat Risk Software which includes a .csv and preprocessed spatial layers described in Mitchell et al. 2021 but provided here for ease of running the example and surveillance disease testing data (included here). Data included in the .csv are not true locations of samples, rather modified data to be used solely for purposes of running through the R-code Mitchell, C., Walter, W. D., Hollingshead, N., & Schuler, K. 2021. Processing of Geospatial Data for the Habitat Risk Software [Software]. Cornell University Library eCommons Repository. https://doi.org/10.7298/2tt1-yy48