CHEYENNE – A multi-year study to evaluate the effectiveness of a vaccine against chronic wasting disease is continuing at the Wyoming Game and Fish Department’s Thorne/Williams Wildlife Research facility west of Wheatland. Chronic wasting disease is a fatal neurological disease affecting elk, deer, and moose, but is not thought to affect humans.
The study, which began in February 2013, involves 40 elk—20 that have been vaccinated and 20 non-vaccinated elk serving as a control group. Previous research has shown elk naturally contract chronic wasting disease at the facility.
“This study will be informative and valuable as we try to find out if there is a way to vaccinate against CWD. But, we do not know if this vaccine will work. Even if we find differences in infection rates, an effective, usable chronic wasting disease vaccine in free-ranging elk still has a long ways to go,” Dr. Mary Wood, Wyoming Game and Fish wildlife veterinarian said.
Dr. Wood and other researchers are taking biopsies from both groups of elk and results from each group will be compared to determine if the vaccine is preventing infection. Obtaining CWD samples from live animals can help researchers determine if the animal has been infected before it develops the clinical disease. The biopsies of the vaccinated elk and those of the control group will be compared to see if there’s any difference in early infection rates.
Dr.Wood said that right now they are injecting the elk with the vaccine by hand. “We have to give it once per year, and it’s not something we could use in free ranging wildlife at the moment.” Dr. Wood said. “But, if it were to work, we could look into other delivery methods such as an oral vaccine. This would still take a long time to develop and we would have to find a way to safely and effectively administer it to wildlife.”
The study is expected to last about seven years after which it is hoped that it can be determined if the vaccine is giving the elk some protection against the disease. If the vaccine proves to be effective, wildlife managers could someday have an important tool to combat the disease.
