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. Our current multi-state and province effort, Surveillance Optimization Project for Chronic Wasting Disease (SOP4CWD), has engineered freely available data infrastructure and data modeling capacities that unlock the potential of “big data” science in planning disease surveillance for 24 US states and 1 Canadian province. However, CWD impacts additional cervid species and locations within North America, therefore we propose to expand the project to an international-scale system designed to provide data-driven decision support for surveillance of CWD for any interested wildlife management agency or organization in Mexico, USA, Tribal nations, and Canada. While CWD is the primary focus of the project, the proposed infrastructure and tools will be designed so they may be readily adapted for use in surveilling other wildlife diseases and/or cervid species. Shared outcomes of the project include the ability to take a continental approach in the management of diseases that threaten our wildlife legacy and human societies.