Recipient Organization
MICHIGAN STATE UNIV
(N/A)
EAST LANSING,MI 48824
Performing Department
Michigan AgBioResearch
Non Technical Summary
Chronic wasting disease is distributed widely in North America, affects multiple cervid species, and does not respect jurisdictional boundaries. Research across multiple disciplines is needed to fully address the complexities of CWD and acquire the knowledge needed to limit or eliminate its spread. A multistate CWD effort to coordinate research across jurisdictions would be beneficial for several reasons.The ecology of CWD is expected to differ across the regions and jurisdictions in which it occurs due to variation in species, climate, surficial geology, habitat, and land use.Host prion protein genotype (Prnp) distribution varies geographically. While no genotype is known to confer complete resistance to CWD, susceptibility to the disease depends on Prnp genotype (Johnson et al. 2006). Host Prnp genotype can affect management strategies.Prion strains vary geographically. Different strains of CWD exist and can be distinguished by length of incubation period and Prnp polymorphism-dependent infectivity. Prion shedding into the environment by infected individuals may differ in magnitude or in dynamics by CWD strain (or host genotype). Strains may differ in their zoonotic potential and can affect management strategies.A multistate effort could facilitate the coordination of resources. Resources could include funding for joint research efforts, sources of negative control animals or tissues, a clearinghouse for reference samples, large-scale research facilities, and increased capacity through a human resource network.Jurisdictions impacted by CWD differ in their surveillance approaches. Standardization across jurisdictions would facilitate data sharing and increase epidemiological understanding of CWD dynamics.Jurisdictions impacted by CWD differ in their legal authorities to minimize spread and resulting policy or management responses. Multi-state research provides the opportunity to assess effectiveness of different regulatory strategies.Disease management activities (or lack thereof) in one jurisdiction can affect the spread of the disease in another. Coordination across jurisdictional boundaries will improve efficacy of disease surveillance and management and can enhance consistency and coordination between jurisdictions.State and federal policies require public support and, frequently, funding for implementation. Given emerging research and perceptions around human health risk, as well as the growing footprint of CWD and CWD-related management, public health departments, natural resource agencies, and agricultural agencies are becoming increasingly involved with communication and public engagement regarding CWD. Understanding public attitudes, values, risk perceptions, and associated behavior will be critical for the development of socially accepted disease response strategies and effective strategies for addressing CWD.A multistate research project would facilitate sharing of data and resources, promote interdisciplinary collaboration among researchers and managers in different jurisdictions, and serve as a vehicle through which to communicate research and management priorities to national decision-makers. The multistate project would be designed to improve information exchange among universities and researchers with common goals, but different backgrounds and knowledge bases. Increased collaboration would improve research quality and avoid duplication of work at a critical time when effective solutions are needed quickly. Research on and management of CWD across North America is fragmented and not coordinated leading to issues of data comparability, duplication of effort, and concerns about the validity of measurements. The proposed multistate project would directly address these issues and both accelerate and improve the quality of CWD research and management nationally.
Animal Health Component
50%
Research Effort Categories
Basic
50%
Applied
50%
Developmental
(N/A)
Goals / Objectives
Establish a national CWD tissue database and repository with improved access for transmission and pathogenesis research and validation of CWD prion detection assays.
Develop large-scale research facilities for controlled CWD research using depopulated cervid facilities where CWD has been detected.
Advance diagnostic testing for CWD with a focus on facilitating adoption of the RT-QuIC assay and improved sourcing for the recombinant prion protein substrate.
Develop a multistate adaptive management approach for CWD to evaluate surveillance and management strategies and how deer harvest regulatory options impact deer disease dynamics.
Evaluate heterogeneous social values, motivations, attitudes, and effective communication to inform disease management decision-making at local, state, and regional levels.
Project Methods
Objective 1. We will first establish a coordinating body that will define metadata standards, storage conditions, and procedures for vetting requests for materials. We envision the tissue and reagents bank to not be single repository, but a clearing house to coordinate the provision of samples to researchers. The physical storage locations would be based on geographical proximity to sources of tissue, ideally in facilities that routinely perform CWD diagnostic services for states with high sample testing numbers. Samples will be stored at -80 °C, identified with a unique bar code that is linked to the metadata associated with the sample. A metadata gap analysis will be conducted prior to collecting and storing data. An oversight committee will be assembled which will be comprised of state and federal representatives, field biologists, basic scientists, and industry representatives as deemed appropriate. This committee will determine how samples are distributed and will develop a memorandum of understanding for how data, analyses, testing, and diagnostics will be used and any assignment of fees.Objective 2. We propose to establish CWD research sites in and around captive animal facilities where CWD has been detected. Facilities in several states would be suitable for this purpose, and collaboration among efforts in different states would be valuable to ensure efficient use of resources. Ideally, sites would have a history of holding CWD-positive deer on site, and contain several paddocks (e.g., 1-acre paddocks surrounded by 8-ft high fences to limit deer movement), animal handling facilities, and pastures varying in size from a few to hundreds of acres. The first step will be to assess the risks and benefits of using such facilities for research. The primary risk is the maintenance or amplification of CWD prions in the environment. Risks are expected to differ among sites and be determined in part by the current level of contamination in and around the potential research site. If regulatory authorities permit the facility, scoping meetings with local landowners and officials would be held to seek support for the facility. Assuming a facility was permitted and obtained local support, a stake-holder advisory group would be established to raise funds to purchase the facility (if necessary) and any surrounding land necessary to fulfill research objectives and ensure biosecurity. The stake-holder group would also raise funds to (1) make the facility and research pastures secure with double fencing of at least 8 feet high and (2) maintain the research facility once it is operational. Once these steps have been completed, title would be transferred to the agency, university, or non-governmental organization responsible for the research facility, personnel would be hired, and the facility would become operational. Funding for these projects would be sought from state and federal agencies, non-governmental organizations, and private sources. A research committee would be established with representatives from each of the state wildlife agencies where facilities are located, scientists with expertise in CWD research, and representatives from important stakeholder groups such as hunters, landowners, and the captive deer industry. Projects and funding would be evaluated and paired to make the best use of each research facility and available funding.Objective 3. The multistate project would facilitate the adoption of the highly sensitive RT-QuIC assay (Wilham et al. 2010) by academic laboratories and state and federal agencies. This would be accomplished by coordinating provision of the recombinant prion protein substrate needed for the assay, providing training for laboratories wishing to adopt RT-QuIC, following up on trained personnel, certification of laboratories for diagnosis, and developing protocols for handling suspect samples.Objective 4. Initial work will focus on regulation-driven changes to the size and age/sex structure of the harvest. We will begin by surveying the participating states to ascertain the (1) variety of harvest regulations they have applied pre- and post-CWD invasion; (2) availability of spatial and temporal harvest information, including license sales, harvest reporting rates, success rates and harvest sex/age composition, associated with the various regulatory frameworks; (3) methods used to collect the harvest information and estimate these rates; (4) availability of ancillary data that may help this assessment (e.g., research studies); and (5) level of precision needed on key rates to permit CWD management decisions to be made. The results of the survey will help to guide the analysis and elucidate key gaps that may hinder the collation of data across agencies and a regional assessment of regulatory impacts on deer harvest. If the survey demonstrates that enough information is currently available for an analysis, we will solicit this information from each participating agency. This will entail working with each agency to ensure data are standardized and interpretable. We will employ Bayesian statistical techniques to estimate the effects of various regulations on deer harvest within and between states based on this standardized dataset. In the event that the survey reveals gaps too substantial to overcome in some states, we will convene a meeting with these agencies to develop a protocol that can be applied to capture the needed information and work to implement these practices to permit the desired evaluation in the future. The next step will be to tie the above analytical results to CWD dynamics. We will employ stochastic compartmental disease models to simulate CWD burden in populations that are parameterized using information from previous research and/or published literature. We will then introduce harvest regulations and associated harvest rates into the system, based on the results from above, and measure the potential effects of harvest regulations on disease processes and outcomes. This effort will be coordinated with existing work at Michigan State University. Finally, using the results of this modeling effort we will work with participating state agencies to implement the harvest regulations that appear most effective in their CWD-affected areas.Objective 5. Activity 1: Understanding stakeholder values and motivations associated with CWD management and control. We propose to establish a formal working group that would include scientists from public health, wildlife management, epidemiology, prion, and social sciences, as well as communication specialists. The group would meet quarterly in the first year to (1) refine goals and objectives developed at the September 2019 workshop, (2) identify several key stakeholders to bring into the process early, and (3) work toward funding recruitment and support for research endeavors. Key stakeholders would include hunter organizations, cervid farmer organizations, land owners, and others groups impacted by CWD. Involving stakeholders early in the process has been identified as a critical need to ensure interests and perspectives are well represented in the prioritization of communication needs, as well as to enhance audience trust in CWD messaging through stakeholder delivery of key messages. Finally, we would facilitate the identification of research gaps in CWD human dimensions research and inform the design and implementation of new human dimensions research. Activity 2: Develop, implement, and measure the effectiveness of targeted communication strategies on CWD management and control for different audiences. The newly formed Human Dimensions working group would create a consensus document of current CWD best practices for management and control, leveraging existing efforts such as the American Fish and Wildlife Association's Best Practices for CWD management.