Transmission of Chronic Wasting Disease in Wisconsin White-Tailed Deer: Implications for Disease Spread and Management

Jennelle, Christopher S.; Hénaux, Viviane; Wasserberg, Gideon; Thiagarajan, Bala; Rolley, Robert E.; Samuel, Michael D.

doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0091043

Cited by 53 publications

(111 citation statements)

References 61 publications

(129 reference statements)

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“…This pattern was reported for whitetailed deer in Wisconsin (Heisey et al 2010, Jennelle et al 2014, Samuel and Storm 2016 and Illinois (Samuel and Storm 2016), for mule deer in Colorado (Miller and Conner 2005, Miller et al 2008, Wolfe et al 2018 and Wyoming (DeVivo et al 2017), and for mule deer and white-tailed deer pooled in Saskatchewan, Canada (Rees et al 2012). This pattern was reported for whitetailed deer in Wisconsin (Heisey et al 2010, Jennelle et al 2014, Samuel and Storm 2016 and Illinois (Samuel and Storm 2016), for mule deer in Colorado (Miller and Conner 2005, Miller et al 2008, Wolfe et al 2018 and Wyoming (DeVivo et al 2017), and for mule deer and white-tailed deer pooled in Saskatchewan, Canada (Rees et al 2012).…”

Section: Infection Pattern and Mode Of Transmissionsupporting

confidence: 74%

“…Therefore, the demographic patterns of parasites and disease may influence their impact on population dynamics (Miller et al 2007). The harvesting of males can lead to more stable population dynamics under the threat of CWD (Jennelle et al 2014), increase disease detection, and limit the risk of geographic spread (Lang and Blanchong 2012). Infected females reproduce at close to normal rates until the late disease stages (Dulberger et al 2010; hence, the effect of CWD on reproduction is expected to have a weaker impact on population dynamics.…”

Section: Implications Of the Demographic Infection Patternmentioning

confidence: 99%

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The demographic pattern of infection with chronic wasting disease in reindeer at an early epidemic stage

et al. 2019

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and J. V age. 2019. The demographic pattern of infection with chronic wasting disease in reindeer at an early epidemic stage.Abstract. Infection patterns linked to age and sex are crucial to predict the population dynamic effects of diseases in long-lived species. How such demographic patterns of infection arise is often multifactorial, although the cause is commonly seen as a combination of immune status as well as variation in pathogen exposure. Prion diseases are particularly interesting, as they do not trigger an adaptive immune response; hence, differences in pathogen exposure linked to behavior could be the prime determinant of the pattern of infection. In cervids, the fatal prion disease, chronic wasting disease (CWD), is spreading geographically, with economic and cultural consequences in affected areas in North America, and all infected individuals eventually die from disease-associated sequelae if they live long enough. Understanding the causes of the demographic pattern of infection with CWD is therefore urgent but is limited by the fact that reported data primarily come from related deer species in North America. The recent (detected 2016) emergence of CWD among wild alpine reindeer (Rangifer tarandus) in Norway with a different social organization, that is, no home range behavior and no matrilineal female groups, offers an opportunity to advance our understanding of how behavior influences the infection patterns. Testing of 1081 males and 1278 females detected 19 animals positive for abnormal prion protein in brain and/or lymphatic tissues. No calves and only one male yearling were infected, with the remaining positives being adults (representing 1.5% of adult males and 0.5% of adult females). We found a strong sex-biased infection pattern in reindeer (with infection 2.7 times more likely in adult males), which is similar to the results reported in mule deer and white-tailed deer. The hazard of being detected as positive increased with age in males. There was no close genetic relatedness among positive animals. The results were consistent with the within-group contact of males being a possible major route of transmission. We discuss the demographic pattern of infection with CWD in view of the lack of stable home range behavior and other key behavioral traits of reindeer relevant to understanding pathogen exposure in general.

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Section: Infection Pattern and Mode Of Transmissionsupporting

confidence: 74%

Section: Implications Of the Demographic Infection Patternmentioning

confidence: 99%

The demographic pattern of infection with chronic wasting disease in reindeer at an early epidemic stage

et al. 2019

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“…, Jennelle et al. ). For age‐specific alternatives, we considered different infection and disease mortality rates for young deer (fawns and yearlings) and adults (>2 yr).…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…, Jennelle et al. , Monello et al. ), possible human and livestock health issues, and potential economic consequences have led to management concerns about how to control CWD distribution and prevalence.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Chronic wasting disease in white‐tailed deer: infection, mortality, and implications for heterogeneous transmission

Samuel

Storm

2016

Ecology

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Chronic wasting disease (CWD) is a fatal neurodegenerative disease affecting free-ranging and captive cervids that now occurs in 24 U.S. states and two Canadian provinces. Despite the potential threat of CWD to deer populations, little is known about the rates of infection and mortality caused by this disease. We used epidemiological models to estimate the force of infection and disease-associated mortality for white-tailed deer in the Wisconsin and Illinois CWD outbreaks. Models were based on age-prevalence data corrected for bias in aging deer using the tooth wear and replacement method. Both male and female deer in the Illinois outbreak had higher corrected age-specific prevalence with slightly higher female infection than deer in the Wisconsin outbreak. Corrected ages produced more complex models with different infection and mortality parameters than those based on apparent prevalence. We found that adult male deer have a more than threefold higher risk of CWD infection than female deer. Males also had higher disease mortality than female deer. As a result, CWD prevalence was twofold higher in adult males than females. We also evaluated the potential impacts of alternative contact structures on transmission dynamics in Wisconsin deer. Results suggested that transmission of CWD among male deer during the nonbreeding season may be a potential mechanism for producing higher rates of infection and prevalence characteristically found in males. However, alternatives based on high environmental transmission and transmission from females to males during the breeding season may also play a role.

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“…Similarly, the potential for environmental transmission was only accounted for in two studies [22, 23] and seasonal effects were only considered in three of the six studies [20, 21, 25]. This discussion highlights the variability in model structure and parameter assumptions and echoes the challenges regarding the most appropriate CWD transmission coefficient also encountered by other authors including Jennelle et al [24] and Potapov et al [23]. …”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 90%

Systematic review of management strategies to control chronic wasting disease in wild deer populations in North America

et al. 2016

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BackgroundChronic wasting disease (CWD) is a contagious, fatal prion disease affecting cervids in a growing number of regions across North America. Projected deer population declines and concern about potential spread of CWD to other species warrant strategies to manage this disease. Control efforts to date have been largely unsuccessful, resulting in continuing spread and increasing prevalence. This systematic review summarizes peer-reviewed published reports describing field-applicable CWD control strategies in wild deer populations in North America using systematic review methods. Ten databases were searched for peer-reviewed literature. Following deduplication, relevance screening, full-text appraisal, subject matter expert review and qualitative data extraction, nine references were included describing four distinct management strategies.ResultsSix of the nine studies used predictive modeling to evaluate control strategies. All six demonstrated one or more interventions to be effective but results were dependant on parameters and assumptions used in the model. Three found preferential removal of CWD infected deer to be effective in reducing CWD prevalence; one model evaluated a test and slaughter strategy, the other selective removal of infected deer by predators and the third evaluated increased harvest of the sex with highest prevalence (males). Three models evaluated non-selective harvest of deer. There were only three reports that examined primary data collected as part of observational studies. Two of these studies supported the effectiveness of intensive non-selective culling; the third study did not find a difference between areas that were subjected to culling and those that were not. Seven of the nine studies were conducted in the United States.ConclusionsThis review highlights the paucity of evaluated, field-applicable control strategies for CWD in wild deer populations. Knowledge gaps in the complex epidemiology of CWD and the intricacies inherent to prion diseases currently pose significant challenges to effective control of this disease in wild deer in North America.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s12917-016-0804-7) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

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Transmission of Chronic Wasting Disease in Wisconsin White-Tailed Deer: Implications for Disease Spread and Management

Cited by 53 publications

References 61 publications

The demographic pattern of infection with chronic wasting disease in reindeer at an early epidemic stage

The demographic pattern of infection with chronic wasting disease in reindeer at an early epidemic stage

Chronic wasting disease in white‐tailed deer: infection, mortality, and implications for heterogeneous transmission

Systematic review of management strategies to control chronic wasting disease in wild deer populations in North America

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