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[Image 2 of 2 related images; see also,
Chronic Wasting Disease in Mule Deer (Image 1)
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Chronic wasting disease (CWD) of the deer family is a member of a group of infectious diseases caused by transmissible proteins called prions. Prion proteins accumulate in the brain of affected individuals, causing neural degeneration and inevitably, death. Similar diseases include scrapie in sheep and goats, bovine spongiform encephalopathy in cattle ("mad cow disease"), and Creutzfeldt-Jacob disease in humans.
The only place in the world where these diseases are known to occur in free-ranging wildlife is in northeastern Colorado and southeastern Wyoming, where an epidemic of CWD has been ongoing in populations of mule deer and elk for at least two decades.
In their National Science Foundation-supported research on "Chronic Wasting Disease in Wildlife: Responses to Changing Land Use," researchers from Colorado State University are studying the CWD epidemic to learn how it is transmitted and whether or not it can be transmitted from animal residues that accumulate in the environment (urine, feces, saliva, and carcasses). Principal investigator N. Thompson Hobbs and researchers Michael W. Miller and Elizabeth Williams will develop mathematical models to predict the spread of the disease as well as evaluate ways to contain it. The predictions of these models will be compared with field data on disease prevalence to identify the model that most reliably represents the behavior of the disease in mule deer populations. This model will be analyzed to understand how changes in land use resulting from rapid development are likely to affect the dynamics of the disease and to evaluate strategies for its management.
Chronic wasting disease poses a potentially major threat to members of the deer family throughout Western North America and although current evidence suggests that the transmission of CWD to people is unlikely, this possibility cannot be ruled out. Thumbnail">
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