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Susceptibility of Beavers to Chronic Wasting Disease
August 31, 2022
Chronic wasting disease is increasing across the landscape, and this is threatening other wildlife species in addition to cervids. Our objective was to evaluate the possibility that chronic wasting disease could transmit to beavers. Our results indicate that beavers are … read more
Posted in CWD & Other Diseases, Resources | Tagged beavers, chronic wasting disease, CWD, prions, wildlife diseases

Examination of the interaction between age-specific predation and chronic disease in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem
May 5, 2022
The patterns of parasite infections in wildlife hosts often have an age component. For example, the prevalence of chronic infections tends to skew towards older individuals that have had a longer amount of time to be exposed (e.g. Heisey et … read more
Posted in CWD & Other Diseases, Resources | Tagged age structure, demography, healthy herds, infectious disease, matrix model, predator–prey, Prion, simulation

The Role of Wolves in Regulating a Chronic Non-communicable Disease, Osteoarthritis, in Prey Populations
May 5, 2022
It is widely accepted that predators disproportionately prey on individuals that are old, weak, diseased or injured. By selectively removing individuals with diseases, predators may play an important role in regulating the overall health of prey populations. However, that idea … read more
Posted in CWD & Other Diseases, Resources | Tagged bone disease, carnivores, chronic pathology, disease dynamics, resource selection, selective predation, senescent related pathology, ungulates

Reduction of Chronic Wasting Disease Prion Seeding Activity following Digestion by Mountain Lions
December 30, 2021
Chronic wasting disease (CWD) is a transmissible prion disease first observed in the 1960s in North America. This invariably fatal disease affects multiple cervid species in the wild and in captivity. In addition to the several known transmission pathways involving … read more
Posted in CWD & Other Diseases | Tagged chronic wasting disease, mountain lion, Prion, PrP, Puma concolor, RT-QuIC

Dogs are resistant to prion infection, due to the presence of aspartic or glutamic acid at position 163 of their prion protein
December 30, 2021
Unlike other species, prion disease has never been described in dogs even though they were similarly exposed to the bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) agent. This resistance prompted a thorough analysis of the canine PRNP gene and the presence of a … read more
Posted in CWD & Other Diseases | Tagged canids, canine, dog, interspecies transmission, prion infection, prion susceptibility, scrapie, transgenic mouse models, transmissible spongiform encephalopathy, transmission barrier

Sarcoptic mange severity is associated with reduced genomic variation and evidence of selection in Yellowstone National Park wolves (Canis lupus)
January 30, 2021
Population genetic theory posits that molecular variation buffers against disease risk. Although this “monoculture effect” is well supported in agricultural settings, its applicability to wildlife populations remains in question. In the present study, we examined the genomics underlying individual-level disease … read more
Posted in CWD & Other Diseases | Tagged ectoparasite, genetics, infection severity, mite infestations, natural selection, RAD- sequencing, sarcoptic mange, wildlife disease