Diagnostic testing of chronic wasting disease in white-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus) by RT-QuIC using multiple tissues.

ABSTRACT: Chronic wasting disease (CWD) is a fatal prion disease affecting cervids (deer, elk, moose). Current methods to monitor individual disease state include highly invasive antemortem rectal biopsy or postmortem brain biopsy. Efficient, sensitive, and selective antemortem and postmortem testing of populations would increase knowledge of the dynamics of CWD epizootics as well as provide a means to track CWD progression into previously unaffected areas. Here, we analyzed the presence of CWD prions in skin samples from two easily accessed locations (ear and belly) from 30 deceased white-tailed deer (Odocoileus viginianus). The skin samples were enzymatically digested and analyzed by real-time quaking-induced conversion (RT-QuIC). The diagnostic sensitivity of the ear and belly skin samples were b

SUBMITTER: Burgener KR 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC9668146 | biostudies-literature | 2022

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature