Chronic Wasting Disease Drives Population Decline of White-Tailed Deer.

Autor: Edmunds DR; Department of Veterinary Sciences, University of Wyoming, Laramie, Wyoming, United States of America., Kauffman MJ; United States Geological Survey, Wyoming Cooperative Fish and Wildlife Research Unit, Department of Zoology and Physiology, University of Wyoming, Laramie, Wyoming, United States of America., Schumaker BA; Department of Veterinary Sciences, University of Wyoming, Laramie, Wyoming, United States of America., Lindzey FG; United States Geological Survey, Wyoming Cooperative Fish and Wildlife Research Unit, Department of Zoology and Physiology, University of Wyoming, Laramie, Wyoming, United States of America., Cook WE; College of Agriculture and Natural Resources, University of Wyoming, Laramie, Wyoming, United States of America., Kreeger TJ; Wyoming Game and Fish Department, Wheatland, Wyoming, United States of America., Grogan RG; Department of Veterinary Sciences, University of Wyoming, Laramie, Wyoming, United States of America., Cornish TE; Department of Veterinary Sciences, University of Wyoming, Laramie, Wyoming, United States of America.
Jazyk: angličtina
Zdroj: PloS one [PLoS One] 2016 Aug 30; Vol. 11 (8), pp. e0161127. Date of Electronic Publication: 2016 Aug 30 (Print Publication: 2016).
DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0161127
Abstrakt: Chronic wasting disease (CWD) is an invariably fatal transmissible spongiform encephalopathy of white-tailed deer, mule deer, elk, and moose. Despite a 100% fatality rate, areas of high prevalence, and increasingly expanding geographic endemic areas, little is known about the population-level effects of CWD in deer. To investigate these effects, we tested the null hypothesis that high prevalence CWD did not negatively impact white-tailed deer population sustainability. The specific objectives of the study were to monitor CWD-positive and CWD-negative white-tailed deer in a high-prevalence CWD area longitudinally via radio-telemetry and global positioning system (GPS) collars. For the two populations, we determined the following: a) demographic and disease indices, b) annual survival, and c) finite rate of population growth (λ). The CWD prevalence was higher in females (42%) than males (28.8%) and hunter harvest and clinical CWD were the most frequent causes of mortality, with CWD-positive deer over-represented in harvest and total mortalities. Survival was significantly lower for CWD-positive deer and separately by sex; CWD-positive deer were 4.5 times more likely to die annually than CWD-negative deer while bucks were 1.7 times more likely to die than does. Population λ was 0.896 (0.859-0.980), which indicated a 10.4% annual decline. We show that a chronic disease that becomes endemic in wildlife populations has the potential to be population-limiting and the strong population-level effects of CWD suggest affected populations are not sustainable at high disease prevalence under current harvest levels.
Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.
Databáze: MEDLINE
Externí odkaz: