Browsing by Subject "Chronic Wasting Disease"

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    Characterizing U.S. Agency Approaches to Cervid Carcass Disposal in the Context of Chronic Wasting Disease Management: A Multi-State, Mixed-Methods Analysis
    (2023-07) Anderson, Cory
    Chronic wasting disease (CWD) prions are notoriously resilient infectious agents that can retain infectivity in environmental settings for extensive periods of time. Given their pronounced durability and evidence of widespread prion distribution across an array of host tissues, the carcasses of CWD-infected cervids have been recognized as a potential source for ongoing transmission. Accordingly, efforts that help limit the abundance and accessibility of potentially infected carcasses on the landscape have been prioritized, with several disposal methods deemed best practices. However, the availability of effective and sustainable options for cervid carcass disposal has become increasingly limited in various parts of the country, presenting challenges to involved agencies. Thus, there is a critical need to better understand agency approaches to this issue, including any plans, practices, and perspectives. In this study, data were collected via an online questionnaire administered to recommended personnel at all 50 state wildlife agencies in the U.S. and supplemented by qualitative interviews with representatives from multiple involved state agencies in Colorado, Minnesota, and Pennsylvania. Overall, the information obtained by this effort provides valuable insight on cervid carcass disposal and its application for CWD management across the U.S. from the perspective of the numerous state-level agencies involved.
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    Detection of Chronic Wasting Disease Prions in Soil at an Illegal White-tailed Deer Carcass Disposal Site: An Intersection of the Ecology of Environmental Matrices and Prion Detection Techniques
    (2024-08) Grunklee, Madeline
    Chronic wasting disease (CWD) is a transmissible neurodegenerative prion disorder affecting cervids such as deer, elk, and moose, causing rapid and severe neurological degeneration followed by eventual death. Once CWD prions have accumulated in the body, they can be shed from infected animals through excreta and secreta such as saliva, blood, urine, and feces. Prions shed into the environment can persist in environmental matrices for a currently undefined amount of time, posing significant environmental contamination concerns. Prion contaminated soils could serve as a reservoir for persistent prion transmission in cervids, and pose unknown risks to wildlife, humans, and ecosystems as a whole. We validated the use of RT-QuIC in vitro prion amplification assay to detect prions in soil at an illegal white-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus, WTD) carcass disposal site in Beltrami County, Minnesota. To do this, we prioritized soil sampling around 11 locations from which we had previously detected CWD in biological material from WTD remains using RT-QuIC. Given the history of PrPCWD-positive carcass material decomposition at this site, we aimed to characterize the extent of environmental contamination around these focal points. We detected CWD in 28 soil samples across 17 locations out of 207 soil samples tested. Of these detections, 17 soil samples were located at sites which also demonstrated prion seeding activity in biological samples from WTD remains. These detections suggest that this carcass disposal practice can have widespread and long-term implications for the contamination of environmental matrices including the potential to cause prion contamination hot spots in the environment.
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    Supplementary Data for Modeling and Conservation of Wildlife Populations in Managed Landscapes: A Trade-Off Between Effort and Results, Ph.D. Dissertation
    (2016-08-30) Berg, Sergey S.; berg1546@umn.edu; Berg, Sergey S.
    The data included here are supplemental R codes associated with the dissertation "Modeling and Conservation of Wildlife Populations in Managed Landscapes: A Trade-Off Between Effort and Results" by Sergey S. Berg. The dissertation explores the trade-off between effort and the validity or impact of results in a variety of ecological systems. The data are being released with the publication of the dissertation.