CSU awarded $2.5 million to study chronic wasting disease

FORT COLLINS – A Colorado State University research team has been awarded a $2.5 million National Science Foundation grant to study transmission of chronic wasting disease, or CWD.

CWD affects members of the deer family and is similar to diseases like scrapie in sheep and mad cow disease in cattle. CWD was first discovered in northeastern Colorado and southeastern Wyoming by CSU scientists in the 1960s.

In the NSF-funded project, CSU scientists will conduct field studies on wild mule deer populations in Northern Colorado and focus on the mechanism of transmission. They will also look at how many deer can be infected by a single infected deer. The research will also look at how an individual animal’s genetic make-up can make it more or less susceptible to CWD infection.

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“We will be taking a close look at why some deer get sick with CWD and why some don’t,´ said Tom Hobbs, CSU professor and project leader. “Is their susceptibility to the disease controlled by the environment where they live? By their genetics? By the other deer they contact? We want to understand the things that determine individual variation in disease transmission.”

The interdisciplinary team will be led by Hobbs and Mike Miller from the Colorado Division of Wildlife. Team members include Randy Boone, research scientist with the Natural Resource Ecology Laboratory; Mike Antolin, biology professor; Jennifer Hoeting, associate professor of statistics; and Simon Tavener, mathematics professor.