Innovation Anthology #129: Professor and Researcher
Although the number of confirmed cases are still relatively few, Chronic Wasting Disease continues to spread from Saskatchewan into Alberta’s wild deer population.
As a geneticist and investigator for the Alberta Prion Research Institute, Dr. David Coltman is looking for some way that scientists might predict the spread of the deadly disease.
Using genetic barcoding, Dr. Coltman has found the herds mix freely across western Canada. So there are no natural or environmental barriers to prevent the spread of CWD from herd to herd.
He’s also determined that Alberta’s deer belong to a genotype that makes them more susceptible to the disease. This means the incubation period is shorter rather than longer.
DR. DAVID COLTMAN: If you have a long incubation period, so that the animal is more resistant in the sense that it doesn’t get sick as early, it’s a Typhoid Mary. It’s walking around shedding infectious particles for a much longer time. If it’s a buck, gets older and goes on a long distance movement to try to find does and encounters lots of does, the transmission dynamics, it could be a lot worse for transmission, to be if you like quote unquote "resistant".
But it’s still a mystery exactly how Chronic Wasting Disease is spread from deer to deer.
Thanks today to Alberta Ingenuity.
FOR INNOVATION ANTHOLOGY, I’M CHERYL CROUCHER
Guest
Karl Riabowol, PhD,
Faculty of Medicine, University of Calgary, Calgary, Alberta, Canada,
Sponsor
Alberta Ingenuity
Established in 2000, the Alberta Ingenuity Fund supports science and engineering research of the highest calibre, to create a prosperous future for the province of Alberta. It draws funding from a $1 billion endowment established in 2000 and managed by the Government of Alberta to build the capacity for innovation, especially in areas with long lasting social and economic impact.
Among its many programs, Alberta Ingenuity supports graduate students and university researchers, industrial research and commercialization partnerships, and has established several Centres and Institutes.
In January 2010, under the new Alberta Innovation Framework, Alberta Ingenuity was restructured and absorbed in the new agency Alberta Innovates Technology Solutions.
Program Date: 2008-04-29