Chronic Wasting Disease (CWD)

Chronic Wasting Disease (CWD) is a disease that occurs in ungulates (hooved mammals). It is caused by a transmissible spongiform encephalopathy (TSE). TSEs consititute a small group of fatal neurological disorders affecting humans and animals, including: Scapie in sheep, Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy, or "Mad Cow Disease," in cattle, and Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease in humans. TSEs are diseases of the nervous system that have distinctive lesions in the brain. The causative agent may be a modified protein (prion) that is resistant to degradation. All mammals have normal cellular prion protein (PrP), but we do not know yet what is the transmissable agent that causes the transformation from cellular PrP to the resistant PrP.

The following dates are linked to informal notes prepared by USGS scientist Tom Roffe, detailing the unfolding drama of CWD in the United States, and providing research resources about the disease.

April 15, 2002	April 15, 2002 (2)	April 16, 2002
April 16, 2002 (2)	April 17, 2002	April 22, 2002
May 14, 2002	May 20, 2002	June 10, 2002
June 19, 2002	July 2, 2002	July 22, 2002
August 5, 2002	August 16, 2002	August 26, 2002
August 26(2), 2002	August 29, 2002	August 30, 2002
October 4, 2002	November 14,2002	December 19, 2002
December 20, 2002	January 7, 2003	January 14, 2003
February 10, 2003	February 17, 2003	March 13, 2003
April 15, 2003	April 25, 2003	May 20, 2003

For more information please visit the Biological Resources Discipline National Wildlife Health Center, Madison, WI website on the Chronic Wasting Disease.

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U.S. Department of the Interior | U.S. Geological Survey
URL: http://biology.usgs.gov/cro/CWD.htm
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Page Last Modified: Friday, March 2, 2007