Fameli, A., Jennelle, C., Edson, J., Hildebrand, E., Carstensen, M. and Walter, W.D. (2025). Relatedness of White-Tailed Deer from Culling Efforts Within Chronic Wasting Disease Management Zones in Minnesota. Pathogens, 14(1), 67; https://doi.org/10.3390/pathogens14010067
Abstract
In white-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus), closely related females form social groups, and direct contact between individuals from different groups is limited. Consequently, females infected with chronic wasting disease (CWD) are more likely to spread it to their relatives. Deer culling has been used as a management tool to reduce disease transmission by targeting social groups in high-risk area; ; however, the effectiveness of this effort to remove related individuals has not been assessed. We analyzed 11 microsatellites and a fragment of the mtDNA control region to evaluate: (1) the presence of genetic structure in white-tailed deer from three CWD management zones in Minnesota, USA, and (2) the effectiveness of culling operations to remove related deer. For objective (1) we genotyped 1,053 deer [CM(1] culled during winter of 2019 and 2021, and 203 deer collected in between CWD management zones to better represent genetic diversity. For objective (2) we only included culled deer, defining “culled groups” comprised by samples obtained in the same township-range-section and year. We compared mean relatedness among deer from the same culled group (intra-group relatedness) and among deer from different culled groups (inter-group relatedness). We did not find evidence of genetic structure, suggesting that in the absence of management actions, an outbreak in any of the management zones could naturally spread to the others. Culling efforts removed deer more related than expected by chance (intra-group relatedness>inter-group relatedness), for both years analyzed. We determined that localized culling has the ability to eliminate social groups, a necessary step early on in an epidemic when transmission depends on direct contact.
[CM(1]I think you can discuss this as “deer” here and not samples of deer. I think it’s implied samples are collected from deer to do this type of work, but in the end, we are interested in understanding the deer themselves.
[CM(1]I think you can discuss this as “deer” here and not samples of deer. I think it’s implied samples are collected from deer to do this type of work, but in the end, we are interested in understanding the deer themselves.