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CWD resistant genetic research could improve deer herd

 

New research is working to identify how farmed deer could be bred to be resistant to Chronic Wasting Disease.

Dr. Nicholas Haley at the College of Veterinary Medicine at Midwestern University in Arizona tells Brownfield his research has identified genetic traits that have higher levels of resistance to the disease. He says through selective breeding, Chronic Wasting Disease resistance could grow among farmed deer.  “If we’re able to increase the resistance of the farmed, white-tail deer herd, the farmed elk herds, we can remove them from the equations so that they’re no longer becoming infected from wild deer or from other farmed deer.”

Haley says the disease can have a significant impact on deer populations long-term and if found on a deer farm, the herd is eventually depopulated.

A similar breeding technique has been used in sheep production to eliminate scrapie in the last decade.

Chronic Wasting Disease is a contagious neurological disease that causes weight loss, lethargy and eventually death.

The research is funded in part by The United Deer Farmers of Michigan, Simpson’s Whitetails in Michigan, Whitetails of Wisconsin’s Foundation, and the Wisconsin Cervid Farmer’s Foundation.

AUDIO: Interivew with Dr. Nicholas Haley