How are tissues from animals that tested positive last year being used?
DNR, responding to our state’s need for more information on CWD and the scientific community’s increased research efforts, is sharing wild white-tailed deer tissues collected during statewide CWD surveillance with researchers both here in Wisconsin and nationwide. By sharing tissues with researchers, more will be learned about CWD ecology and management, and improvements will be made in CWD testing accuracy and efficiency. A subcommittee of the Interagency CWD Health and Science Team, comprised of representatives from the state Departments of Agriculture, Trade and Consumer Protection, Health and Family Services, the University of Wisconsin, WVDL and DNR, reviews requests for CWD deer tissues every six months. To date, shared tissues have been used to validate and compare alternative tests to detect CWD prion in deer, to study the disease-causing prion, to investigate possible human health risks through primate exposure studies, and to evaluate the persistence of prions in the environm
