New CWD test developed in Hamilton has potential for eventual use in the wild | Montana Untamed
The chronic wasting disease testing was done using the ears of mule deer killed by Colorado hunters.
Brett French
Scientists have developed a new way to test live animals for chronic wasting disease that holds promise for one day detecting the illness in the wild.
“We need to do more in the form of field testing to verify its utility,” said Byron Caughey, chief of the TSE/Prion Biochemistry Section at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases in Hamilton.
The new method utilizes a piece of tissue from the animal’s ear for testing. Previously, more invasive tests had proven effective but difficult to collect, including a rectal sample or biopsy of lymph nodes.
“We hope this will be simpler and safer for the animal,” Caughey said.
The results of the study identifying the effectiveness of the ear punch test were recently published in the journal “Scientific Reports.” Along with Caughey, scientists who contributed to the research were: Natalia do Carmo Ferreira, Jorge M. Charco, Jakob Plagenz, Christina D. Orru, Nathanial D. Denkers, Michael A. Metrick II, Andrew G. Hughson, Karen A. Griffin, Brent Race, Edward A. Hoover, Joaquín Castilla, Tracy A. Nichols and Michael W. Miller.
Rocky Mountain Laboratories scientist Byron Caughey, a senior investigator in NIAID’s Laboratory of Persistent Viral Diseases, co-authored a recent study examining a new way to detect chronic wasting disease.
CWD
Chronic wasting disease is an always fatal infection that afflicts deer, elk and moose. It was first documented in the wild in Montana in a mule deer buck killed in Carbon County in 2017. Since then, Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks has facilitated the testing of thousands of hunter-killed game to find where CWD is occurring in the state and how prevalent it is in certain populations.
