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Spatial variation in susceptibility to chronic wasting disease in white‐tailed deer
Author(s) -
Manjerovic Mary Beth,
Green Michelle L.,
Kelly Amy C.,
Mateus-Pinilla Nohra E.,
Shelton Paul,
Novakofski Jan
Publication year - 2012
Publication title -
the faseb journal
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.709
H-Index - 277
eISSN - 1530-6860
pISSN - 0892-6638
DOI - 10.1096/fasebj.26.1_supplement.1035.5
Subject(s) - chronic wasting disease , prnp , biology , odocoileus , disease , herd , genotype , single nucleotide polymorphism , culling , coding region , genetic variation , genetics , gene , prion protein , scrapie , zoology , medicine , pathology , ecology
Chronic wasting disease (CWD) is a prion disease that leads to neurodegeneration and death in cervids. CWD management in Illinois has been based on selectively culling deer herds in CWD infected and high risk areas with the target goal of decreasing infectious foci. Previous research found associations between susceptibility to CWD and polymorphisms in the prion protein gene (PRNP). The objective of this study was to use nucleic acid sequences of the prion gene, in particular codon 96, to examine genetic profiles of deer throughout northern Illinois. Using muscle tissue collected during the CWD management program, we paired positive and negative samples stratified by age and sex and amplified the coding region for the mature prion protein (using previously published primers). Sequences were aligned in Sequencher v.5.0 and compared to a PRNP consensus sequence derived using the GenBank database. All statistical analyses were performed with SAS v.9.1. We compared the frequency of coding polymorphisms and found a correlation between disease status and total number of polymorphisms per animal. Thus, how genetic heterogeneity relates to CWD susceptibility and resistance can affect the natural response of individual animals to CWD exposure. This information can help guide management of deer populations with the additional goal of increasing herd immunity as we decrease CWD foci. Research funded by IDNR and UIUC‐OVCR.