Principal Investigator: Krysten Schuler

Co-PI: Brenda Hanley

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): 

Chronic wasting disease (CWD) is a fatal disease of cervids with significant ecological and economic impacts. We are currently engaged in an eleven-state effort, Surveillance Optimization Project for Chronic Wasting Disease (SOP4CWD), to maximize sampling efficiency and improve its effectiveness to benefit state agencies. Our diverse team is building on CWD surveillance and disease models and incorporating a broad range of factors, such as sex, age, sample source, genetics, landscape characteristics, captive cervid facility activity, hunter-harvested carcasses, and disposal methods, to “sample smarter”. The product of this synthesis will be a set of tools that integrate local harvest and disease prevalence data with data science, mathematical and statistical modeling techniques to benefit the future efforts of a region-wide consortium of state agencies. After meeting with representatives of state wildlife agencies, we recognized the vast unmet technological demands on state agencies for CWD surveillance and response. Synthesizing these technological products are beyond the capacity of most state/federal agencies, but decision makers need model outputs to be made more accessible through intuitive data analytics and visualization tools that are collected into a single online and user-friendly location. Our current funding does not allow for the development of such an interactive “Dashboard” as desired by wildlife agencies; therefore, we seek additional support for “Phase II” to create this product. This interface will make accessible all modeling outputs from Phase I, including the inventory, diagnosis, prognosis, exploration, and prescription of alternatives for disease surveillance efforts, each at the local, state, or regional scale. The Dashboard will facilitate the flow of information for CWD surveillance between the real-time data, modelers, and agencies, while enhancing our ability to respond to and manage chronic wasting disease in the Great Lakes region and beyond.