Wildlife Disease Hazard Software
No Access Until
Permanent Link(s)
Collections
Other Titles
Abstract
The Wildlife Disease Hazard Software displays the hazards associated with the introduction and spread of Chronic Wasting Disease (CWD) in wild white-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus) in the eastern United States (US) and Canada (CAN). Disease hazards include any human activity that can result in the introduction of infectious prions into the environment or into live wild populations of cervids, but this software explicitly intakes data such as the presence of taxidermists, deer meat processing businesses, and captive cervid farms located amid wild deer populations (Schuler et al., in preparation). The Wildlife Disease Hazard Software further depicts areas for which local demographic parameters of the live deer population, such as fecundity, natural mortality, and harvest mortality, can influence the spread of CWD once infectious prions are introduced (Hanley et al., in preparation). Areas at high risk of novel CWD introduction and/or subsequent rapid spread of the pathogen through the live deer population are ranked using anthropogenic and demographic hazard combinations, then displayed in an interactive map. The Wildlife Disease Hazard Software includes (redacted) hazard data, (redacted) deer demographic data, and example apps for use in Alabama, Arkansas, Connecticut, Florida, Georgia, Indiana, Iowa, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota, Mississippi, New Hampshire, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Tennessee, Virginia, and Wisconsin, USA and Ontario, CAN, but the software is readily adaptable to depict conditions in other US states and Canadian provinces.