Arkansas Chronic Wasting Disease Deer Study 

Chronic wasting disease (CWD) is a concern to natural resource managers throughout North America.  Contemporary research has provided critical information to help manage CWD transmission and minimize potential for spread of the disease.  However, important knowledge gaps exist that continue to compromise the ability for state and federal agencies to properly contain CWD and mitigate its effects.  In Arkansas, CWD was first detected in 2015.  Since then, the disease has been detected in white-tailed deer across several counties.  The Arkansas Game and Fish Commission is committed to conducting applied research to provide necessary information that will allow the agency to proactively manage CWD transmission and prevalence, while also understanding individual and population-level effects of CWD.  Here we developed a comprehensive, multifaceted research program to estimate deer abundance, evaluate influences of CWD on demographic and behavioral parameters, determine infection rates relative to these parameters, and develop a spatially-explicit population model that will forecast effects of agency management actions on the future spread of CWD and the consequences to the white-tailed deer herd.