MSU expert: Diseases threaten deer populations

With the firearm deer hunting season kicking off this week, many Michigan hunters have their minds set on bringing home a winning whitetail deer. But for Sonja Christensen, an assistant professor in the Department of Fisheries and Wildlife in Michigan State University’s College of Agriculture and Natural Resources, the focus — now and all year long — is on protecting deer from disease.

New visual technique could advance early detection of neurodegenerative diseases

Researchers at the University of Minnesota, have developed a new visual diagnostic technique that can be used to advance early detection for neurodegenerative diseases like Parkinson’s disease and similar diseases that affect animals, including Chronic Wasting Disease in deer.

Genome sequencing reveals widespread COVID-19 infection in white-tailed deer

Houston Methodist’s SARS-CoV-2 genome sequencing team has partnered on a study led by Penn State that revealed 80% of white-tailed deer sampled across Iowa at the height of the 2020-2021 deer-hunting season tested positive for the SARS-CoV-2 virus. Analysis of the virus genome sequences revealed infections were likely the result of multiple human-to-deer transmission “spillover” events followed by deer-to-deer transmission from April 2020 through January 2021.

The Buck Stops Where? UNH Research Records Longest-Ever Deer Distance

Why did the deer cross the road? According to research from the University of New Hampshire to keep going and going and going. Researchers have discovered the longest distance ever recorded by an adult male white-tailed deer—300 kilometers, or close to 200 miles, in just over three weeks. The finding has important implications for population management and the transmission of disease, especially chronic wasting disease, a fatal neurological disease.