Developing a fast-turnaround Chronic Wasting Disease test for environmental and ante-mortem samples

Why is this research important for Alberta ag?

Chronic Wasting Disease (CWD) is a highly infectious prion disease in deer, elk, and moose that is spreading uncontrollably in Alberta, Saskatchewan, and Manitoba, as well as many US states and Scandinavian countries. The main route of infection is thought to occur through oral uptake of contaminated feed, soil, and other matter. A fast-turnaround test to detect environmental prion contamination and prion infection in live animals would be a valuable tool to reduce or minimize prion contamination and prion infection in both captive and wild animal populations.

Currently, the gold standard for detection of CWD prions relies on histopathological analysis of tissue samples from preclinical or symptomatic animals, which are labour intensive and take longer than a week on average to process. This test also cannot be used to detect prion contamination in environmental samples. itionally, histopathology cannot be used to detect prion contamination in environmental samples. Other, widely-used tests rely on the amplification of the infectious prion state through biochemical means. While these tests have demonstrated excellent sensitivity and specificity, they also take a week or more of time, require specialized reagents, and expensive equipment.

Previously conducted research resulted in the development of antibodies that recognize the infectious prion protein with unprecedented specificity. By combining the antibodies with a fluorescent protein, researchers were able to develop novel and sensitive CWD detection tools. This research will use these tools to develop a fast-turnaround test for the detection of CWD prions in environmental samples (e.g. soil and plant matter) and in samples collected from CWD-infected white-tail deer.

What benefits can producers expect from this research?

This research will have significant positive impacts on environmental, health, and economic factors for Alberta. CWD has a significant negative impact on wildlife health, wildlife conservation efforts, cervid farming, the hunting industry, and general tourism. Being able to quickly and accurately determine if a live animal, a freshly killed deer or elk, a livestock paddock, or wildlife area are CWD contaminated would reduce long wait-times that are currently unavoidable and simplify the subsequent decision-making processes. Moreover, an inexpensive, fast-turnaround assay to detect CWD prions could also reduce the current workload and cost to process and test hunter-submitted deer and elk samples.

How will these research findings reach producers on-farm?

Projects results will be shared through publications in peer-reviewed journals, presentations at scientific conferences, workshops, and public events.