Testing for CWD without thinning the deer herd? A ‘better way’ indeed

They’re hunting for new tools to detect CWD in deer without relying on deer culling. Lindsay Thomas, Jr. of the National Deer Association recently addressed three separate research projects. One, at the University of Pennsylvania, involves training dogs to detect CWD prions through sniffing. Another effort at the University of Minnesota is looking at detection of prions on the surfaces of materials at deer feeders. More promising and pragmatic is work at Mississippi State University’s Deer Lab focused on detecting CWD prions in whitetail scrapes.