County-wide assessments of Illinois white-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus) prion protein gene variation using improved primers and potential implications for management.

ABSTRACT: Chronic wasting disease (CWD) is a fatal, highly infectious prion disease that affects captive and wild cervids. Chronic wasting disease is the only known transmissible spongiform encephalopathy affecting free-ranging wildlife. In CWD-positive deer, some haplotypes of the prion protein gene PRNP are detected at lower frequencies as compared to CWD-negative deer, as are some variants of the prion protein PrP. Here, we examined wild, hunter-harvested CWD-negative white-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus) to determine whether there were geographical or temporal differences in the PRNP haplotypes, PRNP diplotypes, PrP proteoforms, and in the proportion of deer with at least one protective haplotype. We sampled 96-100 hunter-harvested deer per county at two time points in the Illinois counties

SUBMITTER: Raudabaugh DB 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC9710747 | biostudies-literature | 2022

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature