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"Monitor for Chronic Wasting Disease: Deer Movements, Density, and Potential Transmission at Wind Cave NP" Jonathan Jenks, South Dakota State University Chronic wasting disease (CWD) has emerged as a disease of concern in cervid populations. Testing, transmission, and detection of CWD are areas of interest for managing populations of North American deer (Odocoileus). Objectives of this research were to: (1) assess performance of 2 sampling approaches using tonsillar biopsy for CWD testing, (2) evaluate home-range overlap and direct contacts as indices for potential transmission of CWD, and (3) determine probabilities of detection and death related to CWD from deer mortalities. We collected data from January 2003 to 2005 on white-tailed deer (O. virginianus) in southwestern Minnesota and white-tailed and mule deer (O. hemionus) in Wind Cave National Park. Data collected for objectives 2 and 3 involved relocating radio-collared deer at Wind Cave National Park, which is located in the southern Black Hills of western South Dakota. We compared ventral-medial and dorso-lateral approaches for obtaining samples for CWD testing: the dorso-lateral approach was deemed more efficient based on number of follicles obtained from deer. Based on home range analysis and estimates of contact rates, we determined that home range overlap was not a good predictor of contact between pairs of deer unless home ranges overlapped by > 70%. Relative to objective 3, we used multi-state models within Program Mark using a capture-recapture framework. We estimated survival of deer in the Park at about 77%. We performed a suite of models and determined that mortality for non-infected deer was 2 times higher than for CWD-infected deer but non-infected deer were 7 times more likely to be tested for the disease. We also determined that CWD did not function as a fully additive source of mortality in this deer population.

“bZIP transcription factors bound to the endoplasmic reticulum membrane are activated in response to stress in Arabidopsis,” will be presented by Dr. Steve Howell, Iowa State University. A reception will be held at 3:30 p.m. The event is open to the public.