Publications

susceptibility of cattle to the agent of chronic wasting disease from elk after intracranial inoculation.	cattle could be exposed to the agent of chronic wasting disease (cwd) through contact with infected farmed or free-ranging cervids or exposure to contaminated premises. the purpose of the current study was to assess the potential for cwd derived from elk to transmit to cattle after intracranial inoculation. calves (n = 14) were inoculated with brain homogenate derived from elk with cwd to determine the potential for transmission and to define the clinicopathologic features of disease. cattle wer ...	2012	22991389
functional genomics approach for identification of molecular processes underlying neurodegenerative disorders in prion diseases.	prion diseases or transmissible spongiform encephalopathies (tses) are infectious neurodegenerative disorders leading to death. these include cresutzfeldt-jakob disease (cjd), familial, sporadic and variant cjd and kuru in humans; and animal tses include scrapie in sheep, bovine spongiform encephalopathy (bse) in cattle, chronic wasting disease (cwd) of mule deer and elk, and transmissible mink encephalopathy. all these tses share common pathological features such as accumulation of mis-folded p ...	2012	23372423
association mapping of genetic risk factors for chronic wasting disease in wild deer.	chronic wasting disease (cwd) is a fatal transmissible spongiform encephalopathy affecting north american cervids. we assessed the feasibility of association mapping cwd genetic risk factors in wild white-tailed deer (odocoileus virginianus) and mule deer (odocoileus hemionus) using a panel of bovine microsatellite markers from three homologous deer linkage groups predicted to contain candidate genes. these markers had a low cross-species amplification rate (27.9%) and showed weak linkage disequ ...	2012	23467626
chronic wasting disease in bank voles: characterisation of the shortest incubation time model for prion diseases.	in order to assess the susceptibility of bank voles to chronic wasting disease (cwd), we inoculated voles carrying isoleucine or methionine at codon 109 (bv109i and bv109m, respectively) with cwd isolates from elk, mule deer and white-tailed deer. efficient transmission rate (100%) was observed with mean survival times ranging from 156 to 281 days post inoculation. subsequent passages in bv109i allowed us to isolate from all cwd sources the same vole-adapted cwd strain (bv(109i)cwd), typified by ...	2013	23505374
immunization with a synthetic peptide vaccine fails to protect mule deer (odocoileus hemionus) from chronic wasting disease.	chronic wasting disease (cwd) adversely affects both wild and captive cervid populations. a vaccine to prevent cwd would be a highly desirable tool to aid in disease management. to this end, we tested in mule deer a combination of cwd vaccines consisting of cervid prion peptide sequences 168-vdqynnqntfvhdc-182 and 145-ndyedryyrenmyrypnq-164 that had previously been shown to delay onset of clinical disease and increase survival in a mouse-adapted scrapie model. thirteen captive mule deer (odocoil ...	2013	23778624
homogenization, sex, and differential motility predict spread of chronic wasting disease in mule deer in southern utah.	chronic wasting disease (cwd) is an infectious prion disease that affects mule deer, along with other cervids. it is a slow-developing, fatal disease which is rare in the free-ranging deer population of utah. we present a sex-structured, spatial model for the spread of cwd over heterogeneous landscapes, incorporating both horizontal and environmental transmission pathways. to connect the local movement of deer to the regional spread of cwd, we use ecological diffusion with motility coefficients ...	2014	23846241
mineral licks: motivational factors for visitation and accompanying disease risk at communal use sites of elk and deer.	free-ranging cervids acquire most of their essential minerals through forage consumption, though occasionally seek other sources to account for seasonal mineral deficiencies. mineral sources occur as natural geological deposits (i.e., licks) or as anthropogenic mineral supplements. in both scenarios, these sources commonly serve as focal sites for visitation. we monitored 11 licks in rocky mountain national park, north-central colorado, using trail cameras to quantify daily visitation indices (d ...	2014	24711146
"atypical" chronic wasting disease in prnp genotype 225ff mule deer.	we compared mule deer (odocoileus hemionus) of two different prnp genotypes (225ss, 225ff) for susceptibility to chronic wasting disease (cwd) in the face of environmental exposure to infectivity. all three 225ss deer had immunohistochemistry (ihc)-positive tonsil biopsies by 710 days postexposure (dpe), developed classic clinical signs by 723-1,200 dpe, and showed gross and microscopic pathology, enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (elisa) results, and ihc staining typical of prion disease in mul ...	2014	24807352
detection of chronic wasting disease in the lymph nodes of free-ranging cervids by real-time quaking-induced conversion.	chronic wasting disease (cwd), a transmissible spongiform encephalopathy of deer, elk, and moose, is the only prion disease affecting free-ranging animals. since the disease was first identified in northern colorado and southern wyoming in 1967, new epidemic foci of the disease have been identified in 20 additional states, as well as two canadian provinces and the republic of south korea. identification of cwd-affected animals currently requires postmortem analysis of brain or lymphoid tissues u ...	2014	24958799
chronic wasting disease of cervids: current knowledge and future perspectives.	a naturally occurring transmissible spongiform encephalopathy (tse) of mule deer was first reported in colorado and wyoming in 1967 and has since spread to other members of the cervid family in 22 states, 2 canadian provinces, and the republic of korea. chronic wasting disease (cwd), caused by exposure to an abnormally folded isoform of the cellular prion protein, is characterized by progressive neurological disease in susceptible natural and experimental hosts and is ultimately fatal. cwd is th ...	2015	25387112
broad and fine-scale genetic analysis of white-tailed deer populations: estimating the relative risk of chronic wasting disease spread.	chronic wasting disease is a transmissible spongiform encephalopathy of cervids, similar to sheep scrapie that has only recently been detected in wild populations of white-tailed deer (odocoileus virginianus) and mule deer (odocoileus hemionus hemionus) in western canada. relatively little is known about local transmission dynamics of the disease or the potential for long-distance spread. we analysed the population genetic structure of over 2000 white-tailed deer sampled from alberta, british co ...	2011	25567957
age and repeated biopsy influence antemortem prp(cwd) testing in mule deer (odocoileus hemionus) in colorado, usa.	biopsy of rectal mucosa-associated lymphoid tissue provides a useful, but imperfect, live-animal test for chronic wasting disease (cwd) in mule deer (odocoileus hemionus). it is difficult and expensive to complete these tests on free-ranging animals, and wildlife health managers will benefit from methods that can accommodate test results of varying quality. to this end, we developed a hierarchical bayesian model to estimate the probability that an individual is infected based on test results. ou ...	2015	26251986
bayesian modeling of prion disease dynamics in mule deer using population monitoring and capture-recapture data.	epidemics of chronic wasting disease (cwd) of north american cervidae have potential to harm ecosystems and economies. we studied a migratory population of mule deer (odocoileus hemionus) affected by cwd for at least three decades using a bayesian framework to integrate matrix population and disease models with long-term monitoring data and detailed process-level studies. we hypothesized cwd prevalence would be stable or increase between two observation periods during the late 1990s and after 20 ...	2015	26509806
infectious disease and grouping patterns in mule deer.	infectious disease dynamics are determined, to a great extent, by the social structure of the host. we evaluated sociality, or the tendency to form groups, in rocky mountain mule deer (odocoileus hemionus hemionus) from a chronic wasting disease (cwd) endemic area in saskatchewan, canada, to better understand factors that may affect disease transmission. using group size data collected on 365 radio-collared mule deer (2008-2013), we built a generalized linear mixed model (glmm) to evaluate wheth ...	2016	27007808
chronic wasting disease drives population decline of white-tailed deer.	chronic wasting disease (cwd) is an invariably fatal transmissible spongiform encephalopathy of white-tailed deer, mule deer, elk, and moose. despite a 100% fatality rate, areas of high prevalence, and increasingly expanding geographic endemic areas, little is known about the population-level effects of cwd in deer. to investigate these effects, we tested the null hypothesis that high prevalence cwd did not negatively impact white-tailed deer population sustainability. the specific objectives of ...	2016	27575545
horizontal transmission of chronic wasting disease in reindeer.	we challenged reindeer by the intracranial route with the agent of chronic wasting disease sourced from white-tailed deer, mule deer, or elk and tested for horizontal transmission to naive reindeer. reindeer were susceptible to chronic wasting disease regardless of source species. horizontal transmission occurred through direct contact or indirectly through the environment.	2016	27869594
molecular mechanisms of chronic wasting disease prion propagation.	prion disease epidemics, which have been unpredictable recurrences, are of significant concern for animal and human health. examples include kuru, once the leading cause of death among the fore people in papua new guinea and caused by mortuary feasting; bovine spongiform encephalopathy (bse) and its subsequent transmission to humans in the form of variant creutzfeldt-jakob disease (vcjd), and repeated examples of large-scale prion disease epidemics in animals caused by contaminated vaccines. the ...	2017	28193766
mule deer spatial association patterns and potential implications for transmission of an epizootic disease.	animal social behaviour can have important effects on the long-term dynamics of diseases. in particular, preferential spatial relationships between individuals can lead to differences in the rates of disease spread within a population. we examined the concurrent influence of genetic relatedness, sex, age, home range overlap, time of year, and prion disease status on proximal associations of adult rocky mountain mule deer (odocoileus hemionus hemionus) in a chronic wasting disease endemic area. w ...	2017	28388681
temporal patterns of chronic wasting disease prion excretion in three cervid species.	chronic wasting disease (cwd) is the only naturally occurring transmissible spongiform encephalopathy affecting free-ranging wildlife populations. transmission of cwd occurs by direct contact or through contaminated environments; however, little is known about the temporal patterns of cwd prion excretion and shedding in wild cervids. we tested the urine and faeces of three species of captive cervids (elk, mule and white-tailed deer) at 6, 12, 18 and 24 months after oral inoculation to evaluate t ...	2017	28708047
evolution of diagnostic tests for chronic wasting disease, a naturally occurring prion disease of cervids.	since chronic wasting disease (cwd) was first identified nearly 50 years ago in a captive mule deer herd in the rocky mountains of the united states, it has slowly spread across north america through the natural and anthropogenic movement of cervids and their carcasses. as the endemic areas have expanded, so has the need for rapid, sensitive, and cost effective diagnostic tests-especially those which take advantage of samples collected antemortem. over the past two decades, strategies have evolv ...	2017	28783058