Vercauteren Kurt C, Burke Patrick W, Phillips Gregory E, Fischer Justin W, Seward Nathan W, Wunder Bruce A, Lavelle Michael J
United States Department of Agriculture, Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service, Wildlife Services, National Wildlife Research Center, 4101 LaPorte Avenue, Fort Collins, Colorado 80521-2154, USA.
J Wildl Dis. 2007 Oct;43(4):784-8. doi: 10.7589/0090-3558-43.4.784.
Deposition of prions into the environment by infected animals may contribute to transmission and spread of chronic wasting disease (CWD) among free-ranging cervids, and identification of such environmental sources may provide an avenue for managing CWD. We evaluated the role that wallow use by elk (Cervus elaphus) may play in CWD transmission by monitoring wallows with animal-activated cameras throughout their period of use. We monitored 39 wallows from 5 August 2005 to 14 October 2005. Elk visited 20 sites; we recorded 22 events when only male elk wallowed and 374 additional events when male and female elk had naso-oral contact with wallow contents. Because wallows are foci of male elk activity, behaviors at wallows could potentially contribute to the maintenance and transmission of CWD. Our findings, however, suggest that because wallows are only used an average of one or two times a season they may not be important in CWD transmission. The data also suggest that mineral licks could be more important in CWD transmission because they were used more frequently and by three species that contract CWD.
受感染动物将朊病毒沉积到环境中，可能会促使慢性消耗病（CWD）在野生鹿类中传播扩散，识别此类环境来源或许能为管理慢性消耗病提供一条途径。我们通过在整个使用期内用动物触发式相机监测麋鹿（Cervus elaphus）使用的泥潭，评估了泥潭在慢性消耗病传播中可能起到的作用。我们在2005年8月5日至2005年10月14日期间监测了39个泥潭。麋鹿访问了20个地点；我们记录到22次仅有雄性麋鹿使用泥潭的事件，以及另外374次雄性和雌性麋鹿口鼻接触泥潭内容物的事件。由于泥潭是雄性麋鹿活动的聚集点，泥潭处的行为可能会对慢性消耗病的维持和传播起到作用。然而，我们的研究结果表明，由于泥潭一个季节平均仅被使用一到两次，它们在慢性消耗病传播中可能并不重要。数据还表明，矿物质舔块在慢性消耗病传播中可能更为重要，因为它们被使用得更频繁，且有三种会感染慢性消耗病的物种使用。
