Innovation Anthology #277:
Alberta’s first case of Chronic Wasting Disease in deer was reported in 2005.
Predicting the spread of this new disease is the research focus of Dr. Evelyn Merrill, a biology professor at the University of Alberta.
Using radio collars, Dr. Merrill’s team is following the movements of deer. These scientists suspect landscape patterns influence contact between deer.
But Dr. Merrill says exactly how deer transmit the disease is still uncertain.
DR. EVELYN MERRILL: If it is through saliva we have, for example, males that snort saliva on other males during the rutting season. They can put it on other vegetation and animals will pick it up on the vegetation as they pass by it. There have been some interesting studies actually looking at scrapes which are areas that they go and they kind of wallow in the soil. And so urine is passed there and then other animals come along. And it really is that environmental contact that probably over the long run will be a major source of spread of the disease.
According to Dr. Evelyn Merrill, male deer are more likely than females to contract chronic wasting disease.
Thanks today to the Canadian Institutes of Health Research.
FOR INNOVATION ANTHOLOGY
I’M CHERYL CROUCHER
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Canadian Institutes of Health Research
Program Date: 2009-12-17