Estimating relative CWD susceptibility and disease progression in farmed white-tailed deer with rare PRNP alleles

• DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0224342
• Publication Date: 2019-12-02T18:34:59Z
• Authors: Nicholas J. Haley; Kahla Merrett; Amy Buros Stein; Dennis Simpson; Andrew Carlson; Gordon Mitchell; Antanas Staskevicius; Tracy Nichols; Aaron D. Lehmkuhl; Bruce V. Thomsen
• Keywords: Chronic wasting disease; PRNP; Odocoileus; Ungulate

Chronic wasting disease is a prion affecting both free-ranging and farmed cervids in North America Scandinavia. A range of cervid species have been found to be susceptible, each with variations the gene for normal protein, PRNP, reportedly influencing susceptibility progression respective hosts. Despite finding several different PRNP alleles white-tailed deer, majority past research has focused on two more common identified-the 96G 96S alleles. In present study, we evaluate infection status stage nearly 2100 deer depopulated United States Canada, including 714 CWD-positive correlate our findings genotype, rare 95H, 116G, 226K We significant differences either likelihood being infected or (and many cases both) at time depopulation all genotypes present, relative most 96GG genotype. high prevalence herds examined, was not reported genotypes. These suggest that additional necessary properly define role these may play managing CWD consideration factors fitness levels, incubation periods, kinetics shedding animals