Utah Project
Chronic Wasting Disease in Utah – development of a risk based CWD surveillance system with updates for the statewide CWD management plan
July 2021 - June 2022
Personnel
Participating Agencies
- U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service
The overall goal of this research is to expand and combine the existing CWD surveillance data needs with information on cervid movements, habitat use, and landscape factors in order to understand the most likely paths of CWD spread, and provide the foundation for creating a revised, scientifically sound, risk based CWD surveillance system. This project is part of a collaboration between the Utah Division of Wildlife Resources, Utah State University Department of Wildland Resources, and the USGS UT Cooperative Fish and Wildlife Research Unit. Evaluating current and past CWD data and creating a comprehensive risk map for the state will serve to better understand what is currently known, identify high risk locations for CWD spread, help prioritize areas for sampling, and formulate appropriate management actions or alterations that should be considered in order to slow the spread of the disease.