Hunting strategies to increase detection of chronic wasting disease in cervids

The successful mitigation of emerging wildlife diseases may involve controversial host culling. For livestock, preemptive host culling removes herds with known contact to infected populations, but this proactive approach conflicts with biodiversity conservation when applied to wildlife. The authors present an alternative approach of proactive hunting surveillance aimed at early disease detection while avoiding undesirable population decline by targeting demographic groups with higher infection likelihood and lower reproductive value. Applying this harvesting principle to Norwegian wild reindeer to substantiate freedom from chronic wasting disease (CWD), proactive hunting surveillance reached 99% probability of freedom from infection (<4 reindeer infected) within 3–5 years, compared with ~10 years using ordinary harvest surveillance. Nonetheless, implementation uncertainties linked to social issues are challenging even with this form of host culling.

Atle Mysterud, Petter Hopp, Kristin Ruud Alvseike, Sylvie L. Benestad, Erlend B. Nilsen, Christer M. Rolandsen, Olav Strand, Jørn Våge, Hildegunn Viljugrein