CWD

Chronic Wasting Disease (CWD) is a prion disease that affects cervids (deer, elk, reindeer, moose, and others) . Pirons are proteins that do not form correctly. Some can be completely harmless, however if they gather to the brain or nervous system, they can cause serious damage. This will cause holes to form in the brain or affected tissue which leads to degeneration of the area and eventual death. Symptoms of CWD are impaired brain function, decline in motor function, loss of weight, drooling, excessive thirst and urination, and abnormal movements. Since prions are made of amino acid chains, they do not have individual genetic material and can't reproduce on their own. To reproduce they instead attach to healthy proteins and destroy them as they spread. Also, prions are not alive such as bacteria and cannot be destroyed once they start spreading throughout a body. They can even withstand temperatures up to 1,500 degrees Fahrenheit!

Research shows that CWD is spread through direct and indirect bodily fluid contact from an infected animal. Animals from CWD can also spread the disease after death because the contaminated body of the host still remains in the environment exposing itself to other animals. Luckily there has been no recorded case of a human contracting CWD or domesticated animals that we eat such as cows, however monkeys with similar genetic makeups as ours have been known to contract the disease.

CWD has been confirmed in 405 counties in the United States, mostly concentrated in the Midwest.

Obviously, difficulty arises when attempting to prevent the spread of a disease through a population of wild animals. Hunters and conservationists play an important role in this fight. Although contraction in nature realistically cannot be eliminated, many steps can be taken to manage and control CWD. Knowing how CWD affects your area is important so you're aware of the possibility of infection in your area and how high of a risk there is. Depending on how high case numbers are, it might be a smart idea to test your animal after it is harvested. Proper carcass disposal also can reduce transmission. Burying the products left over from field dressing prevents other animals from disturbing possibly infected body parts. This is crucial for organs, especially the brain as well as the spinal cord, where prion cells have their biggest effect. Although using feeders can help a hunters success during hunting season, it also draws in animals such as deer to one concentrated area that may not normally be so crowded. Not only does this increase direct animal to animal contraction, but it also increases infection due to leftover accumulations of body fluids. Harvesting younger animals also puts you at less of a risk of consuming and disposing of a contaminated animal. The older an animal gets the more likely it is at risk for infection.

• Obtain information on contaminated counties
• Put county names and FIPS number into excel spreadsheet
• Upload that sheet into ARC Pro
• Select by attributes and clip out only contaminated counties
• Upload map to story map
• Do more research on CWD and find facts
• Add images and finish Storymap