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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Fritz the Cat" data-source="post: 81545" data-attributes="member: 605">Nicholas Haley, DVM and PhD  4:17 p.m.  MST January 22, 2016    <img src="http://www.gannett-cdn.com/-mm-/a1848ce678fad7e7075d01f662521c2744ad7cc2/c=154-0-2847-2020&r=x404&c=534x401/local/-/media/2016/01/22/GreatFalls/B9320610892Z.1_20160122181707_000_G3UD82OMP.1-0.jpg" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " style="" />  This undated photo provided by the journal Science  shows white-tailed deer at the Colorado State University Chronic wasting disease  Research Facility in Fort Collins, Colo. (Photo: AP File  Photo/Science, Edward A. Hoover)  1803 CONNECT<a href="https://twitter.com/intent/tweet?url=http%3A//gftrib.com/1VePf7Q&text=Professor%20pegs%20future%20of%20chronic%20wasting%20disease&via=GFTribune" target="_blank">TWEET</a><a href="http://www.linkedin.com/shareArticle?url=http%3A//gftrib.com/1VePf7Q&mini=true" target="_blank">LINKEDIN</a> 9 COMMENTEMAILMORE Perhaps no issue is as controversial in the hunting community right now as  Chronic Wasting Disease. There’s constant finger-pointing and a lot of theories  about how it will change hunting forever for the worse. But fortunately,  emerging scientific research suggests that CWD doesn’t have to be the scourge  that many fear. Last year, a herd at an Iowa ranch was depopulated after one of the animals  tested positive for CWD, as is standard U.S. Department of Agriculture protocol.  However, the situation took years to resolve as the ranch owner fought for a  more equitable solution. As such, CWD naturally spread among the animals. This provided a unique opportunity for testing of the animals, since  depopulation normally occurs relatively quickly. After testing and euthanizing  the entire herd, sadly a large percentage were identified as CWD positive. The  silver lining was that 20 percent were negative, and we are currently looking at  a genetic link to resistance in these animals. If we can further characterize this resistance in deer, that’s very  promising. As CWD spreads — and it will, since you can’t stop free-ranging deer  from moving around — then the deer that are more genetically susceptible to the  disease will die off at higher rates than those that are less genetically  susceptible. The net result will be a hardier population of deer that is more  resistant to CWD. With farmed deer, there’s the potential to select for this  resistance faster than nature herself could. Other research has pushed the genetic resistance theory. The Wyoming  Department of Fish and Game and the University of Wyoming jointly conducted a  study, published last year, indicating that if CWD hit elk populations in the  state’s northeastern region, the populations would bounce back. It’s possible that genetic selection has already been occurring in areas such  as Wyoming and Colorado. CWD was first found in a free-ranging deer in Colorado  in 1985. Yet researchers in Colorado have noted that CWD does not appear to have  had any significant effect on the deer population size. Similarly, CWD was first  found in elk in Colorado in 1981, and elk numbers have grown since then. The Iowa herd didn’t only provide a boost to genetics research. The samples  collected from the animals also contributed to efforts to develop an antemortem,  or live-animal, test. Currently, CWD can only be detected by using the tissue of  deceased animals, making it difficult to monitor. A breakthrough here would make  managing CWD much easier and more precise. Elsewhere, new research has looked at ways through which CWD can be  transmitted. A study published this year found that CWD could be transmitted by  plant matter. Researchers demonstrated that wheat grass roots and leaves could  take up prions (infected proteins that make up CWD and similar diseases) if  exposed to infected urine or feces. When this same plant matter was fed to  hamsters, the animals became infected. If CWD can be transmitted by plants, then that raises a whole host of  questions about the transportation of hay and other animal feed. Taken together, what does this all mean for hunters? It means CWD will continue to spread, and there’s not much we can do about it  at the moment. Political efforts to restrict or ban deer and elk farming are  pointless, because CWD has long been in the wild, where we can’t get rid of it  due to the resilient nature of prions. On the contrary, farmed cervids may  represent controlled populations where, as we’ve shown, advancements in CWD  detection and prevention can be made quickly. These advancements not only  benefit farmed deer and elk, but wild populations as well. In the short term, we may see a slight dip in some deer populations as the  disease spreads. But in the long run, we should expect deer populations to be  hardy as genes that provide resistance to CWD increase in prevalence. As for research, live-animal tests have decent accuracy — though not yet  perfect. Expect them to get better. The news stories about CWD popping up here and there won’t stop. But progress  is being made against CWD, even if it’s slow. Dr. Haley is an assistant professor with the Department of Microbiology  and Immunology at Midwestern University’s Glendale, Ariz., campus.</blockquote>

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