Goals:  

• Assist with the establishment and coordination of a national RT-QuIC diagnostic network 

• Advance RT-QuIC capabilities for the detection of prion and protein-misfolding diseases

Background: RT-QuIC is a quantitative, high-throughput assay that exploits a fundamental aspect of prion biology to facilitate the detection of minute quantities of misfolded prions. In RT-QuIC, an infectious seed (or test sample) is incubated with an excess of recombinant prion protein. Then, over the course of 24-72 hours of shaking in the presence of a specific fluorescent dye, a real-time readout of prion accumulation is generated. This assay can provide an estimate of the presence and relative titer of misfolded prions from different types of samples. RT-QuIC has been used to accurately detect misfolded prions (including CWD prions) in the body fluids and tissues of humans and animals, including from animals at sub-clinical stages of infection and animals that tested negative by first-generation diagnostic tests (i.e., ELISA and IHC).

Projected outcomes: 

• Epidemiological and laboratory validation of RT-QuIC for animal tissue sample CWD testing

• Routine CWD testing protocols for: plant tissues, soil, water, feces, blood, muscle, environmental swabs

• Expansion of RT-QuIC to other neurodegenerative diseases

• Provide protocols and reagents for RT-QuIC

Funders: Minnesota State Legislature through Rapid Agricultural Response Fund (RARF); Environment and Natural Resources Trust Fund through the Legislative-Citizen Commission on Minnesota Resources; University of Minnesota Office of the Vice President for Research, United States Department of Agriculture

Goals: 

• Improve disease surveillance and food safety through improved training.

• Forge collaborations in training, education, and outreach. 

Background: There exists a broad need to develop advanced, anatomically accurate 3D models, and associated digital videos, to assist in training food inspectors, consumer safety inspectors, and diagnostic sample collectors. This affects a multitude of disciplines including field-based sample collection, such as surveillance for chronic wasting disease, as well as public health veterinarians at meat inspection and processing plants, and instructors who teach food animal production courses or wildlife and natural resource management courses at colleges and universities.

Projected outcomes: Develop a research-validated collection of physical and virtual multi-species 3D animal models that can be utilized on a wide scale for sample collectors, trainers, educators, and inspectors.

Funders: UMN College of Veterinary Medicine Dean’s office; UMN Office of the Vice President for Research;  Environment and Natural Resources Trust Fund through the Legislative-Citizen Commission on Minnesota Resources

Goals:  Our team has launched several research projects aimed at advancing second-generation and developing novel third-generation CWD diagnostic tools for animal testing and environmental monitoring. To accomplish this task, we are focusing on:

• • • Nanoparticle interaction with and detection of CWD causing prions.

    • Development of microfluidic technology capable of detecting CWD causing prions in a wide variety of samples collected from hunter-harvested deer, live deer, and/or the environment (e.g., feces, soil).

    • Discovery and engineering of new antibodies for the advancement of current and future tests and therapeutics.

    • Development of prion imaging-based diagnostic tools.

Background: Robust and easy-to-use diagnostic tests for CWD are currently unavailable. Existing CWD diagnostic tools are cumbersome, time-consuming, and require significant technical expertise. For these reasons, routine testing of venison for CWD is a difficult task and it is estimated that between 15,000 and 20,000 CWD positive deer are consumed in the US annually, with a projected 20% annual increase. Current CWD diagnostic tests can be classified into two categories, first-generation “gold standard” antibody-based diagnostics (e.g. IHC, ELISA) and second-generation prion protein amplification assays. Given increasing concern that CWD will continue its spread throughout Minnesota, North American, and global deer populations, there is an immediate and critical need to advance prion detection methods and develop advanced third-generation CWD diagnostics tools. Third-generation CWD diagnostic tests will leverage emerging microfluidic and nanotechnologies that are being developed for a variety of biomedical applications. 

Projected outcomes: 

• Development of novel microfluidic biosensors capable of fine-scale detection of the CWD causing prion.

• Identification of prion-specific antibodies that can be used for novel antibody-based CWD diagnostics.

Funders: Minnesota State Legislature through Rapid Agricultural Response Fund (RARF); Environment and Natural Resources Trust Fund through the Legislative-Citizen Commission on Minnesota Resources; University of Minnesota Office of the Vice President for Research

Goals: 

• Engage in culturally-appropriate CWD outreach and education.

• Learn more about community-specific hunting behavior and perceptions of CWD management on Tribal lands.

• Establish connections with leaders and members of our Native American, Southeast Asian, and Amish communities for continued information sharing. 

Background: The success of Minnesota’s efforts to control CWD in white-tailed deer hinges on the ability of government agencies, researchers, policy makers and stakeholders to work together, particularly as this issue relates to deer hunting as a CWD management tool. However, in December 2019, our team became aware that culturally-diverse hunting communities had not received critical information regarding CWD biology, management and potential human health risks. Special outreach efforts are needed to reach diverse stakeholders, such as our Minnesota Tribal Nations and Southeast Asian and Amish communities.

Projected outcomes:  Advance community knowledge of CWD and the science behind agency control strategies, which supports the key outcome of inclusive, community-based CWD management.

Funders: Environment and Natural Resources Trust Fund through the Legislative-Citizen Commission on Minnesota Resources; United States Fish and Wildlife Service; United States Department of Agriculture, Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service; Great Lakes Indian Fish and Wildlife Commission

Goals:  We have assembled an interdisciplinary team that includes experts in disease ecology, geospatial modeling, hydrology, wildlife epidemiology, and prion ecology to investigate the environmental impacts of CWD in Minnesota. Our research effort will lead to the production of CWD risk maps for the entire state and will lay the foundation for future questions, research, and funding focused on the environmental impact and multifaceted transmission routes of CWD-causing prions.

Background: Research focused on the transmission of prion diseases at the ecosystem scale is lacking. For both CWD and scrapie, disease-causing prions enter the environment via host excretions or carcasses and can remain infectious for years or even decades. Recent research has shown that CWD prions in the environment can be dispersed by water, bound by soil, acquired by plant roots, transported to aboveground plant tissues, and transmitted to mammals that contact or consume contaminated plants. This new knowledge, along with emerging strains of infectious prions, has fueled concerns of transmission via water and a wide range of agricultural commodities. 

Projected outcomes: This work will elucidate potential CWD transmission routes and environmental reservoirs for CWD-causing prions through integrated empirical and modeling approaches. These results will help combat the spread of CWD in Minnesota and mitigate future economic and environmental impacts. Products stemming from our work will include:

• • • An epidemiological model parameterized with project data to assess key processes shaping transmission through deer, plants, water, and soil.

    • An intensive field study tracking the environmental spread of CWD in southeastern Minnesota as this disease emerges in real time.

    • A spatial model incorporating CWD movement via deer, scavengers, and water across Minnesota landscapes, generating preliminary statewide risk maps.

Funders: MN Futures 2020 through the UMN Office of the Vice President for Research; Environment and Natural Resources Trust Fund through the Legislative-Citizen Commission on Minnesota Resources; Clean Water Funds through the Minnesota Legislature

Goals: Develop consistent and efficient surveillance in Native American lands and for tribal hunters and natural resource managers of Minnesota, Wisconsin, and Michigan. 

• • Develop a surveillance program with partnering tribes and intertribal agencies.

  • Contribute screened samples to CWD test development underway in MNPRO.

  • Develop a team of MN, WI, and MI tribal CWD leads.

  • Evaluate a mechanism to continue effective surveillance in MN, WI, and MI Native American lands.

Background: There is a need for consistent wildlife disease surveillance in Native American lands. Tribes in the U.S. are among the most systematically disadvantaged communities, suffering economic, social, and institutional inequities. Wildlife health and disease issues are challenging to address due to small tribal governments and insufficient resources. MN, WI, and MI tribes do not have reliable and rapid mechanisms to test harvested subsistence species for the presence of diseases like CWD. Currently, CWD surveillance among tribes is sporadic and inconsistent. With increased CWD prevalence in the midwest, there is strong interest among tribes to survey for this disease as they work to protect their resources. We hope that by establishing systematic CWD surveillance across the geographic spread of where tribal hunters harvest deer in MN, WI, and MI, tribes can contribute to the prevention of spread and potentially also protect moose range from CWD.

Projected outcomes:  The information gained from this project will benefit the Chippewa and Dakota tribes of the upper midwest, all of which share jurisdictional boundaries and are working to promote the perpetuation of subsistence species. Establishing a regional tribal CWD surveillance program will enable MN, WI, and MI tribes to protect this subsistence lifestyle by contributing to the prevention of spread of wildlife disease.

Funders: United States Fish and Wildlife Service; United States Department of Agriculture, Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service