Chronic wasting disease was first discovered by American wildlife veterinarian Beth S. Williams. Williams performed necropsies on deer and elk that had died of an unknown … 展开

The cause of CWD (like other TSEs, such as scrapie and bovine spongiform encephalopathy) is a prion, a misfolded form of a normal protein, known as prion protein (PrP), that is most commonly found in the central nervous system (CNS) and peripheral nervous system 展开

Diagnosis is based on post mortem examination (necropsy) and testing; examination of the dead body is not definitive, as many … 展开

Research is focused on better ways to monitor disease in the wild, live animal diagnostic tests, developing vaccines, better ways to dispose of animals that died from the disease and to decontaminate the environment, where prions can persist in soils, and better ways to … 展开

Due to CWD taking 18–24 months after initial exposure to onset, most cases of CWD occur in adult animals; the youngest animal to exhibit clinical … 展开

By 2012, a voluntary system of control was published by APHIS in the US Federal Register. It depended on voluntary minimum standards methodology, and herd certification programs … 展开

North America
The disease was first identified in 1967 in a closed herd of captive mule deer in contiguous portions of … 展开